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ARTES
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SCIENTIA
LIBRARY
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VERITAS
OF THE
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·B28
VOYAGES
INTO THE
ARCTIC REGIONS.
London: Printed by C. Roworth, Bell Yard, Temple Bar.
MAP OF THE
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80
A CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY
HISTORY
OF
A
VOYAGES INTO THE ARCTIC REGIONS;
UNDERTAKEN CHIEFLY FOR THE PURPOSE OF
DISCOVERING A NORTH-EAST, NORTH-WEST,
OR
POLAR PASSAGE
BETWEEN THE
ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC:
FROM THE EARLIEST PERIODS OF SCANDINAVIAN NAVIGATION, TO THE
DEPARTURE OF THE
RECENT EXPEDITIONS,
UNDER THE ORDERS OF
CAPTAINS ROSS AND BUCHAN.
"How shall I admire your heroicke courage, ye marine worthies, beyond all names of
worthiness! that neyther dread so long eyther presence or absence of the suune; nor those
foggy mysts, tempestuous winds, cold blasts, snowes and hayle in the ayre: nor the un-
equall seas, which might amaze the hearer, and anate the beholder, where the Tritons and
Neptune's selfe would quake with chilling feare, to behold such monstrous icie ilands, rent-
ing themselves with terrour of their owne massines, and disdayning otherwise both the sea's
sovereigntie, and the sunne's hottest violence, mustering themselves in those watery plaines
where they hold a continual civill warre, and rushing one upon another, make windes and
waves give backe; seeming to rent the eares of others, while they rent themselves with
crashing and splitting their congealed armours."-Purchas.
sir
BY JOHN BARROW, F. R. S.
LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
1818.
THE
HE two expeditions recently fitted out for ex-
ploring a northern communication between the
Atlantic and Pacific oceans were of a nature to
excite public attention and to engage a large share
of general conversation. But as many crude and
absurd notions seemed to be entertained on the sub-
ject, it was thought that a brief history, arranged
in chronological order, of the dangers and diffi-
culties and progressive discoveries of former
attempts, might serve as a proper introduction to
the narratives of the present voyages, which,
whether successful or not, will be expected by
the public.
In the compilation of this brief history no pre-
tensions are set up to authorship-the collecting
of the materials, though widely scattered through
many large and some few scarce volumes,
employed no great share either of the writer's
time or research; in their present form they may
be the means of saving both to those who feel
disposed to acquire a general knowledge of what
has been and what yet remains to be accom-
plished.
London, 1st August, 1818.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
DISCOVERIES IN THE NORTH, FROM THE EARLY PERIODS
OF SCANDINAVIAN NAVIGATION TO THE END OF THE
FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
Iceland, Greenland, Labrador, and Newfoundland disco-
vered by the ancient Scandinavians.-Discoveries of
Nicolo and Antonio Zeno-Columbus-John and Sebas-
tian Cabota-the Cortereals
CHAPTER II.
1
DISCOVERIES MADE IN THE NORTH DURING THE SIX-
TEENTH CENTURY.
Aubert and Jacques Cartier-Estevan Gomez-The Donii-
nus Vobiscum-The Trinitie and the Minion-Sir Hugh
Willoughby-Richard Chancellor and Stephen Burrough
-Sir Martin Frobisher-Edward Fenton-Arthur Pet
and Charles Jackman-Sir Humphry Gilbert-John
Davis Maldonado-Juan de Fuca-Barentz-William
Adams
49
CHAPTER III.
د
VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY IN THE NORTHERN REGIONS
DURING THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
George Weymouth-James Hall, 1st, 2d, and 3d Voyages
-John Knight-Henry Hudson, 1st, 2d, 3d, and 4th
Voyages-Sir Thomas Button-James Hall, 4th Voyage
CONTENTS.
-Captain Gibbons-Robert Bylot-Bylot and Baffin-
Voyages of a mixed Character between 1603 and 1615—
Jens Munk-Luke Fox-Thomas James-Zachary Gil-
lam-Wood and Flawes
. 164
CHAPTER IV.
DISCOVERIES IN THE NORTHERN REGIONS DURING THE
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
Knight, Barlow, Vaughan, and Scroggs-Middleton and
Moor-Moor and Smith-Hearne Phipps-Cook and
Clerke-Pickersgill-Young-Duncan-Lowenorn and
Egede Mackenzie.
CHAPTER V.
271
VOYAGES OF
OF NORTHERN DISCOVERY UNDERTAKEN IN
THE EARLY PART OE THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
Lieutenant Kotzebue-John Ross, David Buchan, William
Edward Parry, and John Franklin.
357
APPENDIX.
No. I.
Mr. Buchan's Expedition into the Interior of Newfound-
land
•
No. II.
A Relation of the Discovery of the Strait of Anian; made
by Capt. Lorenzo Ferrer Maldonado, in the Year
1588; in which is given the Course of the Voyage, the
Situation of the Strait, the Manner in which it ought to
be fortified, and also, the Advantages of this Navigation,
and the Loss which will arise from not prosecuting it 24
CHAPTER I.
DISCOVERIES IN THE NORTH, FROM THE EARLY
PERIODS OF SCANDINAVIAN NAVIGATION, ΤΟ
THE END OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
Iceland, Greenland, Labrador, and Newfoundland disco-
vered by the ancient Scandinavians.-Discoveries of
Nicolo and Antonio Zeno-Columbus-John and Sebas-
tian Cabota-the Cortereals.
THE piratical expeditions of the ancient Scandi-
navians spread terror and dismay, by their destruc-
tive ravages, among all the maritime nations of
Europe. "We cannot read the history," says M.
Mallet, "of the eighth, ninth, and tenth centu-
ries, without observing, with surprize, the sea
covered with their vessels, and, from one end of
Europe to the other, the coasts of those countries,
now the most powerful, a prey to their depreda-
tions. During the space of two hundred years,
they almost incessantly ravaged England, and fre-
quently subdued it. They often invaded Scot-
land and Ireland, and made incursions on the
coasts of Livonia, Courland, and Pomerania.-
They spread like a devouring flame over Lower
Saxony, Friezeland, Holland, Flanders, and the
VOL. I.
B
DISCOVERIES OF
An. 861.
banks of the Rhine, as far as Mentz. They pe-
netrated into the heart of France, having long
before ravaged the coasts: they every where
found their way up the Somme, the Seine, the
Loire, the Garonne, and the Rhone. Within the
space of thirty years, they frequently pillaged and
burnt Paris, Amiens, Orleans, Poitiers, Bour-
deaux, Toulouse, Saintes, Angoulême, Nantes,
and Tours. They settled themselves in Camargue,
at the mouth of the Rhone, from whence they
wasted Provence and Dauphiny, as far as Va-
lence. In short, they ruined France, levied im-
mense tribute on its monarchs, burnt the palace
of Charlemagne at Aix-la-Chapelle, and, in con-
clusion, caused one of the finest provinces of the
kingdom to be ceded to them." And he adds,
what one would wish to be true, that these daring
robbers, "sometimes animated by a more pacific
spirit, transported colonies to unknown or unin-
habited countries, as if they were willing to repair
in one place the horrid destruction of human kind
occasioned by their furious ravages in others."
"*
One of these pirates, in proceeding to the Faroe
islands, in the year 861, was driven, by an eas-
terly gale of many days continuance, so far to
the westward, that he fell in with an island utterly
unknown to him, and to which, from the great
quantity of snow on the mountains, he
gave the
* Mallet's Northern Antiquities, vol. i. p. 245.
An. 865.
3
THE SCANDINAVIANS.
name of Snow-land. Three years after his return,
a Swede, of the name of Gardar Suaffarson, was
induced to undertake a voyage in search of this
newly discovered island, which he was fortunate
enough to find; and, having spent the winter
upon it, and reached home in safety the following
year, he gave so lively a description of its fair
woods and fertile soil, that one Flocke, or Flokko,
was induced to try his fortune on Snowland. The
mariner's compass being at that time unknown, and
the foggy and clouded atmosphere of the north
frequently hiding the face of the sun for days to-
gether, Flokko took the precaution of providing
himself with a raven, or, as some say, four ravens,
which, like Noah, being let loose in the midst of
the ocean, might serve as a guide for him to follow.
The first is supposed to have flown back to the land
it had left; but on the second directing his flight
to the westward, he followed the course taken by
the bird, and found the land he was in quest of.
He also passed the winter on the island, and, on
his return, gave a less inviting picture of its ap-
pearance than that which had been painted by
Gardar. From the severity of the weather, and
the vast quantities of drift ice which filled all the
bays on the northern side of the island, he changed
the name to that of Iceland, which it ever after
retained. Some of his companions, however, de-
scribed it as a pleasant and fertile country; but no
attempts appear to have been made towards a re-
B 2
4
874.
DISCOVERIES OF
gular establishment upon it, till the year 874,
when one Ingolf, and his friend Leif, or Hiorleif,
dissatisfied with the arbitrary authority of Harold
Harfagre, king of the Norwegians, determined to
abandon their country, and, as voluntary exiles,
to seek an asylum in Iceland. On approaching
the island, Ingolf, conformably with an ancient
superstition of his country, threw overboard a
wooden door, determining to make his first land-
ing on that part of the coast to which the gods
should direct this floating guide; but the current.
having carried it away from his sight, he landed
in a fiord or gulf on the southern part of the island,
which still bears his name.*
The report of their arrival having reached Nor-
way, a number of families, with their followers
and connexions, taking with them their cattle and
furniture and implements of husbandry, enbarked
for this new colony, with a view of establishing
their future residence there. It is mentioned as a
fact in the Iceland annals, whose authenticity has
rarely been called in question, that these early
Norwegian colonists were fully persuaded that
the island had been inhabited before their coming
there; as wooden crosses, bells, and even books,
were found near the shore, such as were then in
use in Britain and Ireland. The distance is so short
from Ireland, that it is not improbable that some
* Arngrim Jonas. Chrymogea..
982.
5
THE SCANDINAVIANS.
or,
of its fishermen might have been driven thither, and
left behind them these relics of Christianity *
as Forster supposes, some of the Norman pirates,
with their booty, after plundering Ireland, may
have directed their course to the westward, and
left there these articles of their booty.†
Towards the close of the tenth century, a man
of the name of Thorwald, being obliged to fly on
account of a murder, set sail for Iceland. His son,
Eric Rauda, or Eric the Redhead, having also been
guilty of murder and many irregularities, soon fol-
lowed. The latter set out from hence on an expe-
dition to the westward in 982, and fell in with that
part of the east coast of Greenland called Herjolf's
Ness, and standing to the southward, entered a
large inlet, which was called by him, or after him,
Eric's Sound. He passed the winter on a pleasant
island in this sound, explored the coast in the fol-
lowing year, and in the third year returned to Ice-
land; and by a lively description and the most
lavish praises of its green and pleasant meadows,
and the abundance of fine fish on the coast, he
induced a number of settlers to accompany him to
this newly discovered country, to which, in com-
parison of its appearance with Iceland, he gave
the name of Greenland. Such is the account of
this discovery, as given by the northern historian
*Mallet's Northern Antiquities,
+ Forster's Northern Voyages.
Torfæi Groen. Ant.
B 3
6
1001.
DISCOVERIES OF
1
and Icelandic judge Snorro; but Torfæus and
some others contend that this country, as well as
Iceland, was known before the times above men-
tioned; and the grounds for this opinion rest chiefly
on the privilege granted to the church of Ham-
burgh in 834 by Louis the Débonnair, and a bull of
Pope Gregory IV., wherein permission is granted
to the Archbishop Ansgarius to convert the
Sueones, Danes, Sclavonians, Icelanders and
Greenlanders; but it is now supposed that the
last two names have been interpolated by the
church of Hamburgh, with a view to secure to
itself certain rights over these countries; and that,
the better to carry on this pious fraud, it had falsi-
fied the documents. Whether this be really the
case or not, the church, it would appear, succeeded
in its object, the Norwegian colonies having con-
tinued to pay to the bishops and the holy see, in
the way of tythe and Peter-pence, two thousand
six hundred pounds, in weight, of the walrus or
sea-horse teeth.
The Norwegians and the Normans flocked in
great numbers to Iceland, and a regular trade was
established between the colonists and the mother
country. About the year 1001, as one of the
colonists, of the name of Herjolf, with his son
Biorn, were proceeding on a trading voyage, their
ships were separated by a storm, and Biorn was
driven to Norway, where he soon afterwards
learnt that his father Herjolf was gone to Green-
land. On this information he set sail to the west-
L
1001.
THE SCANDINAVIANS.
ward, intending to join him, but being driven by
a storm a great way to the south-west he dis-
covered, by chance, a fine plain country well
clothed with wood. The relation which he gave
of this new discovery, on his return to Iceland,
inflamed the ambition of Leif, the son of Eric,
who had founded the colony on the coast of
Greenland. He immediately equipped a proper
vessel, and taking with him his friend Biorn, they
proceeded together in quest of the newly dis-
covered land. On approaching the coast they ob-
served a barren and rocky island, which they there-
fore named Helleland; and to the low sandy
shore beyond it, which was covered with wood,
they gave the name of Markland. Two days
after this they fell in with a new coast of land, to
the northward of which they observed a large
island. They ascended a river, the banks of
which were covered with shrubs, bearing fruits
of a most agreeable and delicious flavour. The
temperature of the air felt soft and mild to the
Greenland adventurers, the soil appeared to be
fertile, and the river abounded with fish, and par-
ticularly with excellent salmon. On proceeding
upwards they discovered that the river issued
from a lake, near which they resolved to pass the
winter. On their return, they mentioned, among
other things, that, on the shortest day, the sun
was visible above the horizon eight hours; that a
B 4
8
、 1001.
DISCOVERIES OF
German, who was one of the crew, in strolling
into the woods, met with wild grapes, which he
informed the Scandinavian navigators were such
as, in his country, were used to make wine,
upon which they gave to the island the name of
Vinland.
The latitude deduced from the observation of
the length of day, supposing it to be correct, would
point out some of the rivers on the eastern coast of
Newfoundland as the spot on which the adven-
turers wintered, several of which rivers take their
rise in lakes; or it would equally answer to the
coast of Canada, near the mouth of the river St.
Lawrence. It is now known that vines grow wild
in various parts of Canada, some of them pleasant
to the taste and agreeable to the eye, such as the
vitis labrusca, vulpina, and arborea,* but whether
any species may grow on Newfoundland, we know so
little of the interior, or even of its shores, that, after
a settlement of more than two hundred years, no
attempt has yet been made to collect a Flora of the
island. But it is by no means necessary to sup-
pose that the fruit found by the German was the
grape. Wünbær or vin-ber (wine-berry)† is the
generic name, among the nations where the grape
"was not known, for the ribesia ‘and grossularia
(the various species of currants and gooseberries);
* Forster's Northern Discoveries.
Dr. Percy-Translation of Mallet's Northern Antiquities.
1001.
9
THE SCANDINAVIANS.
and of the former of these, Canada, Labrador, the
shores of Hudson's Bay, and Newfoundland, afford
several species.* There is, therefore, no reason to
call in question the veracity of the relation on ac-
count of the circumstance which gave the name of
Vinland to the new-discovered country.
Though Newfoundland has now been settled
more than two hundred years, it is scarcely yet
known with certainty whether, in the interior, any
natives are found with permanent habitations on
the island, or whether they are not merely annual
visitors, who come over from the continent in the
summer months for the purposes of killing deer,
bears, wolves, and other animals, whose skins are
valuable for clothing and their flesh as food; and for
catching salmon in the rivers, and collecting fowls
and eggs on the intermediate islands. Many of
these Indians have occasionally been met with in
their boats near the coast, but from the ill treat-
ment they experienced from the European fisher-
men, they withdrew themselves at an early pe-
riod from their intruders, and have since studious-
ly avoided all intercourse with them. It is this
which makes a recent expedition into the interior
of the island, under the command of Captain
* Ribes prostratum is a native of Newfoundland; and R. re-
curvatum, bearing a black berry resembling a grape, is found on
the shores of Hudson's Bay. Persoon. Synop. Plant. i. p. 251.
10
1001.
DISCOVERIES OF
Buchan, now on the northern voyage of discovery,
the more interesting, from whose manuscript jour-
nal an abstract will be given in its proper place in
the sequel.
Whether we are to consider Vinland as Labrador
or Newfoundland is a matter of little importance,
as the Scandinavians do not appear to have made
any progress in the colonization of either country,
though a recent discovery would seem to indi-
cate the remains of an ancient colony, of which
we shall presently have occasion to speak. These
northern hordes, however, "thrust out of their
exuberant hive," flourished with great rapidity
on Iceland, in spite of its barren soil and rigorous
climate. Religion and literature even took deep
root where every luxury and frequently the com-
mon necessaries of life were wanting. The ge-
nius of native poetry survived amidst eternal
ice and snows. The want of shady groves and
verdant meadows, of purling streams and gentle
zephyrs, was amply supplied by the more sublime
and awful objects of nature,--storms and tempests,
earthquakes and volcanos, spouts of liquid fire and
of boiling water, volumes of smoke and steam and
ashes darkening the air and enveloping the whole
island, were the terrific visitors of this ultima
Thule of the inhabitable world. "The scalds or
bards," says Pennant, "retained their fire in the
inhospitable climate of Iceland, as vigorously as
1001.
11
THE SCANDINAVIANS.
when they attended on their chieftains to the
mild air of Spain, or Sicily, and sung their valiant
deeds."*
The Greenland colonies were less fortunate. The
great island (if it be not a peninsula) known by the
name of Greenland, is divided into two distinct parts
by a central ridge of lofty mountains, stretching
north and south, and covered with perpetual ice
and snow.
On the east and the west sides of this
ridge, the ancient Scandinavians had established
colonies. That on the west had progressively in-
creased until it enumerated four parishes, containing
one hundred villages: but being engaged in per-
petual hostility with the native tribes, in possession
of this territory and of the neighbouring islands, to
whom they gave the name of Skroelings, but who
have since been known by that of Eskimaux, the
colony on that side would appear to have been ulti-
mately destroyed by these hostile natives. The
ruins of their edifices were still visible in 1721, when
that pious and amiable missionary Hans Egede went
to that country, on its being re-colonized by the
Greenland Company of Bergen in Norway, and
have since been more circumstantially described.
The fate of the eastern colony was, if possible,
still more deplorable. From its first settlement by
Eric Rauda in 983 to its most flourishing period
* Introd. to Arct. Zool. i. p. 44.
12
1001.
DISCOVERIES OF
about the commencement of the fifteenth century,
it had progressively increased in population; and,
by the latest accounts, consisted of twelve parishes,
one hundred and ninety villages, one bishop's see,
and two convents-one of which is supposed to
have been that which is described by Zeno as si-
tuated near the spring of hot water. A succession
of sixteen bishops is recorded in the Iceland an-
nals; but when the seventeenth was proceeding
from Norway in 1406 to take possession of his
see, a stream of ice had fixed itself to the coast
and rendered it completely inaccessible; and from
that period to the present time, no intercourse
whatever has been had with the unfortunate colo-
nists. Thormoder Torfager, however, relates, in
his History of Greenland, that Amand, bishop of
Skalholt in Iceland, in returning to Norway from
that island about the middle of the sixteenth cen-
tury, was driven by a storm near to the east coast
of Greenland, opposite to Herjolfsness, and got so
near as to be able to distinguish the inhabitants
driving their cattle in the fields; but the wind
coming fair, they made all sail back for Iceland.
Hans Egede conceives this account of Amand
worthy of credit, from which, he observes, "we
learn that the eastern colony continued to flourish
at least one hundred and fifty years after com-
merce and navigation had ceased between it and
Greenland ;" and he adds, "for aught we know tą
1380.
13
THE SCANDINAVIANS.
the contrary, it is not yet wholly destitute of its
old Norwegian inhabitants."*
The several attempts that have been made to
approach this coast, bound in chains of "thick-
ribbed ice," and to ascertain the fate of the un-
happy colonists, will be noticed in their proper
places. Hitherto, all endeavours have been fruit-
less, but the recent disruption of the ice from
that coast may afford the opportunity of exa-
mining into the fate of the wretched inhabitants,
and of ascertaining, if possible, in what manner they
perished, after the closing of the icy barrier upon
them, and whether any and what records or ruins
have been left behind them. Such a research is at
least an object of rational curiosity, and it would
be a reproach to the Danish government, if it
neglected the only opportunity that may occur for
instituting this inquiry.
NICOLO AND ANTONIO ZENO. 1380.
The history of the noble family of ZENO is well
known and celebrated in the records of Venice.
* Hans Egede, Crantz, Torfæus, and a host of writers, concur
in the planting and destruction of these two settlements; yet in
spite of these authorities, and the repeated attempts on the part
of the Danish government to examine into the state of the ancient
colony on the eastern coast, a M. Eggers undertook to prove, in
1792, that the eastern colony never had existence, and that it was
only called East Greenland from being situated on the west side.
This question will more properly be examined in the descriptive
volume.
1
14
1380.
DISCOVERIES OF
The extraordinary adventures of the two brothers
NICOLO and ANTONIO, in the northern seas, were
first published by Francesco Marcolini, in 1558,
and afterwards in Ramusio's Collection of Voyages
and Travels.* They are stated to have been drawn
up from the letters sent by Antonio Zeno to his
eldest brother Carlo, and delivered to Marcolini for
publication by a descendant of the Zeno family,
who laments the imperfect state into which they
had fallen, by his ignorance of their importance at
a time when he was incapable of exercising a
judgment on their contents, and had carelessly
and thoughtlessly destroyed some of them; that,
however, in more mature years, he had collected
together their scattered remains, and put them
into order, with the view of preserving the me-
mory of these early and interesting discoveries,
made by his two noble relations.
From this circumstance, it is evident that great
allowances must be made for what may appear to
be inaccurate or mysterious; but the relation, as
we have it in its mutilated state, contains so much
curious and correct description, and so many inte-
resting discoveries, that it must always maintain
its ground as one of the most important in the his-
tory of early navigation. From this relation, it
appears that Nicolo, being desirous of seeing
foreign countries, fitted out a ship at his own ex-
* Dello Scoprimento del l'Isole Frislanda.
Ramusio, Navig. et Viaggi, vol. ii. p. 220.
1380.
15
N. AND A. ZENO.
pense,
and passed the Strait of Gibraltar, with an
intention of visiting England and the Low Coun-
tries; but, in the course of his voyage, a violent
storm arose, and his vessel was cast away on the
coast of a large island which is called Frisland.
Fortunately for him and his crew, he was saved
from a savage attack made on them by the natives
of the island, by the interference of a chieftain of
the name of Zichmni, under whose protection he
placed himself and all his people. This prince was
also lord of certain small islands to the southward,
called Porland, and duke of Sorano, lying oppo-
site to Scotland. "Of these northern parts," says
the narrator, "I drew out a copy of a navigation
chart, which I still possess among the antiquities
of our house.
This Zichmni, being a great warrior by sea, and
finding Nicolo a man of judgment and discretion,
and well experienced in sea affairs, engaged him
in an expedition to the westward. It consisted of
thirteen vessels, with which they took possession
of Ledovo and Ilofe, and some other small islands,
in which the Venetians obtained great renown, as
well for their valour as their skill in sea affairs.
On their return to Frisland, Nicolo was made
captain of Zichmni's fleet, and so well pleased
with the honours he received, that he wrote to his
brother Antonio to join him; who accordingly
fitted out a ship and proceeded thither, where he
remained fourteen years, ten of them alone, and
four in company with his brother Nicolo; the
16
1380.
DISCOVERIES OF
latter of whom was again sent out on an expe-
dition against Estland, which is situated between
Frisland and Norway. After this he attacked
and plundered seven other islands, which are
named Talas, Broas, Iscant, Traus, Mimant,
Dambere, and Bres, in the last of which he built
a fort. In the following year, having fitted out
three ships, he set sail in July towards the North,
and arrived in Engroneland, where he found a
monastery of predicant friars, dedicated to Saint
Thomas, and situated close to a mountain, which
threw out flames like Vesuvius and Etna.
There was besides in this place a fountain of
hot water, with which the church of the monastery
and the chambers of the friars were heated, and
which was also brought into the kitchen so boiling
hot, that no other fire was made use of for dressing
their victuals; and by putting their bread into
brass kettles without water, it became baked as
well as if it had been in a heated oven. They
had also little gardens, covered over during winter,
which being watered with this water, were defen-
ded against the snow, and cold, which, in those
parts, by reason of their situation so near the pole,
is most severe; and by these means the friars
produced flowers and fruits, and herbs of various
sorts, just as well as in more temperate countries;
so that the rude and savage people of those parts,
seeing these supernatural effects, considered the
friars as gods, and brought them presents of chick-
ens, flesh, and other articles, and held them in the
1384.
17
N. AND A. ZENO.
greatest awe and respect. When the frosts and
snows are severe, the friars heat their houses
in this manner, and temper the heat or cold
at pleasure. Their buildings are made of the
stones which are thrown out like burning cinders
from the mountain, and which by throwing water
on them become excellent white lime; when cold
and not dissolved with water, they shape them with
iron tools and use them in their buildings.
Their winter is said to continue for nine months
their food to consist of wild fowl and fish; for the
warm water runneth into a capacious haven, which,
on account of its heat, it preventeth from freezing,
and in consequence of this there is such a concourse
of sea-fowl and such abundance of fish, that both
are easily taken in vast multitudes, and enable the
friars to maintain a great number of people, whom
they keep in constant employment, in construct-
ing their houses, in taking sea-fowl and fish, and in
a thousand other matters relating to the monastery.
The trade of these friars with Norway and the
neighbouring islands is then described; and it is
observed, that to this monastery of Saint Thomas
resort the friars of Norway, of Sweden, and of
other countries, but mostly from Iceland. The
boats of the fishermen are described as being in
shape like a weaver's shuttle, and made of the
skins and bones of fishes.
This curious account of Engroneland or Green-
land is given by Nicolo to his brother Carlo; and
VOL. I.
C
소
​18
1384 to
DISCOVERIES OF
it appears that, during his residence at this monas-
tery, being unused to such severity of weather, he
fell sick, and died shortly after his return into Fris-
land. This Nicolo left behind him two sons in
Venice, from one of whom was descended the
celebrated Cardinal Zeno.
On the death of Nicolo, his brother Antonio
succeeded to his property, and, unwillingly as it
would seem, to all his dignities and honours, for
he wished to return to his own country; but all
his entreaties with Zichmni were unavailing; for
Zichmni, "being a man of great courage and
valour, had determined to make himself lord of
the sea." At this time one of his fishermen re-
turned to Frisland, after an absence of six and
twenty years, and gave an account of his having
been driven by a violent storm upon an island
called Estotiland, about a thousand miles to the
westward of Frisland. He related that the island
was well peopled; that a man was brought to
him who had likewise been shipwrecked, and who
spoke Latin; that the island was nearly as large as
Iceland, and more fertile, the people ingenious and
skilled as artisans; that the prince had Latin books,
but did not understand them; that they had gold
and all manner of metals; that they raised corn,
made beer, traded with Greenland, from whence
they procured furs, brimstone, and pitch; that
their buildings were made of stone; that they had
extensive woods, of which they built ships, and
1394.
19
N. AND A. ZENO.
traded with a country to the southward called
Drogio.
Zichmni, having heard this strange relation,
which was confirmed by the crew who had come
to Frisland with the fisherman, determined to set
out with a great number of ships and men in
search of these countries, and Antonio Zeno ac-
companied him on this expedition of discovery.
As they proceeded to the westward, the first
point they fell in with was called Icaria, and
beyond this they came to another country, whose
temperature is said to have been inexpressibly mild
and pleasant. To the haven in which they an-
chored they gave the name of Trin. In the in-
terior were great multitudes of people, half wild,
hiding themselves in caverns, of small stature,
and very timid. Zichmni, finding this place to
have a wholesome and pure air, a fruitful soil, and
fair rivers, was so delighted with the country, that
he determined to take possession of it and to build
a city. But his people began to murmur and to
express a desire to return, upon which he sent
away Antonio to conduct back to Frisland all
those who were unwilling to stay. They sailed
for the space of twenty days to the eastward
without seeing any land; then south-east five days,
when they perceived the island of Neome, and,
taking in fresh provisions, in three days more
reached Frisland.
"What followed after the letter containing
C 2
20
1384 to
DISCOVERIES OF
this intelligence," observes the narrator, "I know
not:" but from a piece of another letter of An-
tonio, it would appear that Zichmni built a town
near the harbour on the island which he had
discovered. The beginning of the letter he says
is as follows:
"Concerning those things that you desire to
know of me, as of the men and their manners and
customs, of the animals and neighbouring coun-
tries, I have set down particularly in a book, which,
by the blessing of God, I will bring with me;
wherein I have described the country, the mon-
strous fishes, the laws and customs of Frisland,
Island, Estland, the kingdom of Norway, Estoti-
land, Drogio, together with the life of M. Nicolo,
the knight our brother, with the discovery which
he made, and the state of Engroneland. I have
also written the life and acts of Zichmni, a prince
as worthy of immortal memory as any that ever
lived, for his great valour and singular humanity;
wherein I have described the discovery of Engrone-
land on both sides and the city which he built.
Therefore I will speak no further hereof in this
letter, hoping to be with you very shortly, and to
satisfy you in sundry other things by word of
mouth."
The letters containing the curious and interest-
ing narrative of the adventures and discoveries of
the two Zenos were written by Antonio to his
brother Carlo; "and it grieveth me," says the
1394.
V. AND A. ZENO.
narrator, "that the book and various other writ-
ings concerning these things should so lamentably
have been destroyed; for being but a child when
they fell into my possession, and not knowing of
what importance they were, I tore them in pieces,
as the manner of children is, which I cannot call
to remembrance without the deepest grief.
""*
The more the narrative of the two Zenos has
been scrutinized, the stronger has the internal
evidence appeared in favour of its general veracity.
The heating of the monastery, the cooking of the
friars' victuals, and watering their gardens with hot
water, were considered, however, by many as things
utterly incredible. But we are now "wiser than
of yore," and manage these things in the same
manner as the monks of St. Thomas were wont to
do in the fourteenth century. The great difficulty,
however, among geographers was that of assigning
a proper position for the island of Frisland; a name
which occurs in the life of Christopher Columbus,
and is placed by Frobisher as the southern extre-
mity of Greenland. Ortelius maintained that it
was a certain part of the coast of North America.
Delislet and some others supposed that Buss
island, to the south of Iceland, was the remains of
Friesland, which had been swallowed up by an
* Dello Scoprimento del l'Isole Frisland, &c. per Fran.
Marcolini, 1558.
† Hémisphère Occidental, 1720.
1
}
ċ 3
22
1384 to
DISCOVERIES OF
t
earthquake;* and others again cut the matter short
by considering the existence of Frisland, and even
the whole voyage of the two Zenos, as a fiction.
But M. Buache and M. Eggers have gone far to
prove the truth of the narrative on two different
grounds; the former having shewn that the geo-
graphical position of Frisland corresponds with
the cluster of the Feroe islands;† and the latter,
that the names given by Zeno correspond pretty
nearly with the modern names of those islands.
Forster has tried the same thing, and finds a cor-
responding island for every name mentioned in
the narrative of the two Zenos. He has also dis-
covered that one Henry Sinclair was Earl of
Orkney and possessor of the Shetland islands so
far down as the year 1406; and as Sinclair or
Siclair to an Italian ear might sound like Zichmni,
he concludes that Sinclair is the prince mentioned
by Zeno. § The name even of the aggregate,
Feroesland, differs not materially from Frisland.
Estotiland may be Newfoundland or Labrador.
* It is got rid of in this way by the Duc d'Almadover, the
Abbé Zurla and Amoretti; (Voyage à la Mer Atlantique, &c. tra-
duit
par Ch. Amoretti;) and Buss island itself is gone, if it ever
had any existence above water.
† Mém. sur l'Ile de Frislande, dans l'Hist. de l'Acad. des
Scien. 1784.
† Mem. sur l'Ancien Greenland. '1792.
§ History of Voyages and Discoveries made in the North,
p. 209.
1394.
23
N. AND A. ZENO.
The name, says M. Malte-Brun, appears to be
Scandinavian; "for Est-outland in English would
signify land stretching farthest out to the east,
which agrees with the situation of Newfoundland
with regard to the continent of America."* The
same author observes, that the inhabitants of Es-
totiland appear to be the descendants of the
Scandinavian colonists of Vinland, whose lan-
guage, in the course of three ages, might have
been sufficiently altered to be unintelligible to the
fishermen of Feroe. The Latin books (of which
Zeno speaks) had doubtless, he thinks, been carried
thither by that Greenland bishop, who, in 1121,
betook himself to Vinland to preach the Christian
religion in that country; that Drogio, on this
hypothesis, would be Nova Scotia and New
England; and he concludes, that by bringing
together under one point of view the discoveries
of the Scandinavians in the tenth and eleventh
centuries, and the voyages of the two Venetians
in the fourteenth, we must be persuaded that the
New World has been visited by the nations of the
north as far back as the year 1000; and that it
may perhaps be thought that this first discovery,
historically proved, after having been confirmed
anew in 1390 by Zeno, may have been known to
Columbus in 1477, (1467) when he made a voyage
*Précis de la Géog. Universelle, tom. i. p. 405.
C 4
24
1384 to
DISCOVERIES OF
into the northern seas.
At any rate, that the most.
prejudiced, on casting a glance on the map, must be
convinced that nature herself had designed New-
foundland to be the first for receiving the visits of
Europeans.*
•
With regard to Columbus, too little remains on
record, concerning his voyage to the north, even
for hazarding any conjecture to what part, (beyond
Iceland,) or for what purpose, it was undertaken.
The discovery, however, which has just been made
on Newfoundland would seem to corroborate the
conjecture, that this island is the Estotiland of
Zeno. A party of English settlers, in proceeding
up the river which falls into Conception Bay, a
little to the northward of St. John's, observed, at
the distance of about six or seven miles above the
bay, the appearance of stone walls, rising just
above the surface. On removing the sand and
alluvial earth, they discovered the remains of an-
cient buildings, oak-beams, and mill stones sunk
in oaken beds. Enclosures resembling gardens
were traced out, and plants of various kinds grow-
ing about the place not indigenous to the island.
But the most decisive proof of these ruins being
the remains of an ancient European colony was
in the different kinds of coins that were found,
some of ductile gold, which the inhabitants con,
* Précis de la Géog. Univer. tom. i.
1394.
25
N. AND A. ZENO.
sidered to be old Flemish coins, and others of
copper without inscriptions."
*
The coins, which are said to be in the hands of
many of the inhabitants of St. John's, will probably
decide the question, whether these newly dis-
covered remains of a former colony be that founded
by Zichmni, in the latter part of the fourteenth
century, or some attempt at the establishment of a
colony by the descendants of Eric and Biorn from
Iceland in the eleventh century. The Scandina-
vians were in the practice of coining money
before the tenth century, stamped with the im-
pression of a sun, a star, or simply a cross, but
without any inscription; and they also trafficked
even before that period with foreign money, which
they received principally from the Flemings.† One
circumstance would seem rather to militate against
the supposition of the recently discovered ruins
being the remains of a Scandinavian colony.
These northern settlers on Iceland and Greenland
build chiefly with wood in countries where no
wood grows. The ruins in question are of stone,
and on a spot where timber grows abundantly.
The probability, therefore, is in favour of their
being the remains of the fort which Zichmni built
on the banks of a fair river, if they may not be
* This information is received in a letter from Captain
Buchan, written at the moment of his sailing on the Northern
Expedition.
+ Mallet's Northern Antiquities.
26
1467.
DISCOVERIES OF
referred to a later date than either; for some of the
old inhabitants, it seems, are impressed with the
idea that Lord Baltimore had once intended to
erect saw-mills in the neighbourhood of Port de
Grasse, vestiges of which are said still to remain.
It is an interesting subject, of which some more
certain information it is to be hoped will speedily
be procured.
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.
1467.
The extraordinary discoveries of the Portugueze,
but that of all others which opened them a route
to India round the Cape of Good Hope, aroused the
cupidity of some of, and the curiosity of all, the
nations of Europe, and excited that spirit of enter-
prize in England, which, though it might sometimes
languish, was never wholly extinguished; and
which, indeed, is not likely ever to be extinguished
so long as any part, however obscure or remote, of
this globe we inhabit remains to be discovered. The
Italians were the most skilful navigators of those
days; and among the foreigners who had engaged
in the Portugueze service was a Genoese by birth,
named CHRISTOVAL COLON or CHRISTOPHER
COLUMBUS, who, at the early age of fourteen, had
betaken himself to a seafaring life, and had made
considerable progress in geometry, cosmography
and astronomy. His first voyage, after leaving
the Mediterranean, appears to have been into the
1
1467.
27
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.
northern seas, in which it is stated, in a memo-
randum written by himself, that he had visited
Iceland, to which a considerable trade was then
carried on, particularly by the northern nations
and among others by England, principally on
account of its valuable fisheries. It is even
said that he proceeded beyond this island, and
advanced several degrees within the polar circle,
but on what service and for what purpose does not
appear.* It would have been satisfactory to know
whether it was a mere trading voyage, or a voyage
of discovery, that led this celebrated navigator into
those inhospitable regions; but there is little reason
to hope that any further information will ever be
obtained on this head. His subsequent grand dis-
covery is too well known to be repeated, where it
would be misplaced; but a word may be said on
some recent attempts to rob this celebrated navi-
gator of one of the greatest and most important
discoveries recorded in the annals of navigation.
Doctor Robertson complains, and with a proper
feeling for the honour of this great man, that some
of the Spanish authors, with the meanness of
national jealousy, have endeavoured to detract from
the glory of his grand enterprize, by insinuating
that he was led to the discovery of the new world,
not by his own inventive or enterprizing genius,
but by information which he had received from
* Life of Columbus.
28
1467.
DISCOVERIES OF
some old pilot whose name or nation is not even
mentioned, and that some German authors had
ascribed the honour of the discovery of America
to their countryman Martin Behaim, a native of
Nuremberg. This early geographer studied under
the celebrated John Muller, better known by the
name of Regiomontanus. He accompanied Diego
Cam in his voyage of discovery along the coast of
Africa in 1483, and settled on the island of Fayal,
where he established a colony of Flemings, having
obtained a grant of it from the regent of Portugal.
In 1492 he returned to Nuremberg, to visit his
native country and family; and there made a map
of the globe, which is still preserved in the library
of that city. Of this map Dr. Robertson procured
a copy, as published by Doppelmayer, from which,
he observes," the imperfection of cosmographical
knowledge is manifest. Hardly one place is laid
down in its true situation. Nor can I discover from
it any reason to suppose that Behaim had the least
knowledge of any region in America.”*
He states,
indeed, that he delineates an island, to which he
gives the name of St. Brandon; but that he sus-
pects it to be a mere imaginary island which had
been admitted into some ancient maps on no better
authority than the legend of the Irish St. Brandon
or Brendan, whose story is so childishly fabulous
as to be unworthy of any notice; and he concludes
that the account of his having discovered any part
* Robertson's Hist. of Amer. vol. i. p. 368.
3
1467.
29
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.
of the new world appeared to him to be merely
conjectural. Indeed it is most unlikely that such
a discovery of Behaim either would or could be
concealed; the éclat which attended that of Colum-
bus is alone sufficient to disprove the pretensions
set up for Behaim.
Though the map of Behaim was constructed
from the writings of Ptolemy, Pliny and Strabo,
and from the modern travels of Benjamin of
Tudela, Carpini, Rubruquis, and especially of
Marco Polo, yet the discoveries of the Portugueze
had made no inconsiderable addition to the know-
ledge of the globe, and a grand step in progressive
geography. His countrymen, however, not satis-
fied with what Behaim had sedulously collected
and digested, have gone beyond the Spaniards in
their attempt to rob Columbus of the honour of his
discovery; and by fabricated documents to transfer
the merit of it to Behaim. According to the
pretensions set up by them, he not only made the
discovery of that part of America which is now
called Brazil, but anticipated Magellanes in that
of the strait which bears his name; nay, he even
anticipated the intention of Magelhanes by naming
the natives Patagonians, because the extremities
of their bodies were covered with a skin which
resembled the paws of a bear rather than the
hands and feet of human beings;* all of which is
* 4
Our Captain-general, Magaglianes," says Pigafetta, “gave
to these people the name of Patagoni-because they wore on their
30
1467.
DISCOVERIES OF
extracted from pretended letters of Behaim himself,
written in 1486, and preserved in the archives of
Nuremberg; and from these, it would further
appear, that "Martin Behaim, traversing the Atlan-
tic ocean for several years, examined the American
islands, and discovered the strait which bears the
name of Magellan, before either Christopher Colum-
bus or Magellan sailed those seas; whence he
mathematically delineated, on a geographical chart,
for the king of Lusitania, the situation of the
coast around every part of that famous and re-
nowned strait, long before Magellan thought of his
expedition." It would require better support, than
that they have hitherto met with, to make such
clumsy fabrications pass current in the world.*
was not at all necessary for Columbus to receive
any information from Behaim; he was too well
acquainted with the nature of the sphere not to
know that India could be approached by proceed-
ing to the west as well as to the east, if no other
land should be found to intervene; and it is quite
evident, from all his endeavours to pass to the East
Indies by a western route, that the continuity of
the continent of America was entirely new to, and
wholly unexpected by, him. His hope had been to
find a direct passage to Cathay and Zipangu, names
It
feet the hairy skin of the guanaco, which gave them the appear-
ance of bears' feet.”
* Paper by Citizen Otto, in Amer. Phil. Trans. vol. ii. Nichol-
son's Journals, vol. ii. and iii. Sup. to Ency. Britt.
1467.
31
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.
which, since the return of Marco Polo, had become
"familiar as household words." It is true that the
cosmographers of those days had carried China
much beyond its real extent to the eastward, and,
as Herrera observes, "the more it extended to the
east, the nearer it must approach to the Cape de
Verd islands." Columbus could not be ignorant
of this and indeed so much were the discoveries
;5
made by him considered as a part of Asia, that they
had the name of the "Indies" immediately be-
stowed on them; and it became necessary, on de-
tecting the mistake, to distinguish the two coun-
tries by the names of the East and the West Indies.
And thus, as Major Rennel has justly observed,
"the splendid discoveries of Columbus were
prompted by a geographical error of most extra-
ordinary magnitude.
The whole story of Behaim's discovery seems to
have had its origin in a passage of Pigafetta's
narrative, which is certainly remarkable: "The
Captain General (Magelhanes) knew that he
must make his passage through a strait much con-
cealed, as he had seen on a chart, in the depot of
the king of Portugal, made by that most excellent
man Martin de Boemia;" which might also receive
an additional colour from the assertion of Herrera,
that Magellan was in possession of a terrestrial
globe, made by Behaim, to assist him in directing
his course to the south seas; and that Columbus
* Geog. of Herodotus, p. 685.
32
1496.
DISCOVERIES OF
was confirmed in his opinion of a western navi-
gation by Martin de Bohemia, his friend. *
JOHN AND SEBASTIAN CABOTA. 1496.
JOHN CABOTA or CABOT, a citizen of Venice, came
over to England with his son Sebastian, then a
boy, (besides two other sons,) and settled in Bristol.
Being a skilful pilot and intrepid navigator, Henry
VII., disappointed in the hope of engaging Colum-
bus, through the misfortunes of his brother Bartho-
lomew, encouraged Cabota to make discoveries by
granting him a patent, in virtue of which he had
leave to go in search of unknown lands, and to con-
quer and settle them; the king reserving to him-
self one-fifth part of the profits. The patent bears
date the 5th March, 1496, being the eleventh year
of Henry's reign, and is granted to him by name,
and to his three sons, Lewis, Sebastian, and Sancius.
There is a sad disagreement in the date of the
voyage in which Newfoundland is supposed to
have been discovered; and there is no possible
way of reconciling the various accounts collected
by Hakluyt, and which amount to no less a num-
ber than six, but by supposing John Cabota to
have made one voyage, at least, previous to the
date of the patent, and some time between that
and the date of the return of Columbus.†.
* Herrera, Dec. i. See Burney's History of Voyages and
Discoveries, vol. i. p. 3.
↑ Either in the year 1594 or 1595.
1494. JOHN AND SEBASTIAN CABOTA.
33
Neither is it quite clear that, in the voyage under-
taken after the patent was signed, (whether in the
same year, or the following,) the father accompanied
Sebastian; for, if there be any truth in the report
made to the Pope's legate in Spain, and printed
in the collection of Ramusio, it would appear
that Sebastian was alone on this voyage of dis-
covery; as in this document Sebastian is thus
made to say:-" and when my father died, in that
time when news were brought that Don Christoval
Colon,* the Genoese, had discovered the coasts of
India, of which there was great talke in all the
court of King Henry VII. who then reigned ;
insomuch that all men, with great admiration,
affirmed it to be a thing more divine than humane
to saile by the West into the East, where spices
growe, by a way that was never known before:
by his fame and report, there increaseth in my
heart a great flame of desire to attempt some
notable thing; and understanding by reason of the
sphere that if I should saile by way of north-west
I should by a shorter tract come into India, I
thereupon caused the king to be advertised of my
devise, who immediately commanded two caravels
to bee furnished with all things appertayning to
the voyage, which was, as farre as I remember, in
the year 1496, in the beginning of summer; I
This again is at variance with the patent of Henry, in
which John is mentioned by name.
VOL. I.
D
1
1497.
34
DISCOVERIES OF
began therefore to sail toward the north-west, not
thinking to find any other land than that of
Cathay, and from thence to turn toward India ;
but after certaine dayes I found that the land
ranne toward the north, which was to me a great
displeasure. Nevertheless, sayling along by the
coast to see if I could finde any gulfe that turned,
I found the lande still continued to the 56 degree
under our pole. And seeing that there the coast
turned to the east, despairing to find the passage,
I turned backe again, and sailed downe by the
coast of that land toward the equinoctiall, (ever
with intent to finde the saide passage to India,)
and came to that part of this firme lande which is
nowe called Florida, where my victuals failing, I
departed from thence and returned into England,
where I found great tumults among the people
and preparations for warres in Scotland, by reason
whereof there was no more consideration had to
this voyage.”*
The probability therefore is, that the father and
son jointly, in their first voyage, discovered New-
foundland, to which they gave the name of Prima
Vista, "the first seen." They describe the natives
as being clothed in skins of beasts, and using, as
arms, bows and arrows, clubs and pikes. They
saw bears and large deer, caught plenty of seals,
fine salmon, and soles above a yard in length; but
1
* Ramusio; and Hakluyt's voyages..
1497.
35
JOHN AND SEBASTIAN CABOTA.
the fish in greatest abundance was of a kind called
by the natives baccallaos, a name by which the
country was afterwards known, and which a small
island on the eastern side still bears. The Dutch
and Germans have adopted the native name of
the cod-fish, by changing the latter into j and
transposing the letters b and c, making the word
cabaljou.
From an extract made by Hakluyt out of Fa-
bian's Chronicle, it would appear that the Cabots
brought home three of the natives of Newfound-
land. "These savages were clothed in beasts'
skins, and did eate raw flesh, and spake such
speach that no man could understand them; and
in their demeanour like to bruite beastes, whom
the king kept a time after."
Sebastian Cabota finding, on his return from the
discovery of America, that the English government
was not disposed to prosecute the enterprize thus
happily begun, set out for Spain; or, as Peter
Martyr saith, "he was called out of England by the
command of His Catholic Majesty of Castile,
where he was made one of the council for the
affairs of the New Indies ;" and he adds, “Cabot
is my very good friend, whom I treat with famili-
arity, and delight to have frequently to keep me
company at my own house."
Sebastian made several voyages in the service
of Spain, and among others discovered the Rio
D 2
36
1497.
DISCOVERIES OF
de la Plata, or River of Silver, on the coast of
Brazil. After this he returned to England, pro-
bably on the invitation of Mr. Robert Thorne, an
English merchant of Bristol, but resident at Seville,
with whom he was intimately acquainted, and
who had contributed largely to one of his expedi-
tions.* Mr. Thorne was a native, and once had
served the office of mayor, of the city of Bristol,
where Cabota's father had lived. His return to
England was in the year 1548, when Henry VIII.
was on the throne. On the succession of Edward
VI. the Duke of Somerset introduced him to the
young king, who was so delighted with his conver-
sation that he created him, by patent, pilot major,
and settled on him a pension for life of 500 marks
(166l. 13s. 4d.) a year, “in consideration of the
good and acceptable services done, and to be
done." Never was a reward, great as it was in
those days, more deservedly bestowed. Placed at
the head of the "Society of Merchant Adventurers,"
by his knowledge and experience, his zeal and
penetration, he not only was the means of extend-
ing the foreign commerce of England, but of
keeping alive that spirit of enterprize, which, even
in his life time, was crowned with success, and
which ultimately led to the most happy results
for the nation that had so wisely and honourably
*Lives of the Admirals, vol. i. p. 381.
+ Hakluyt's Voyages.
Ryner's Fœdera, vol. xv. p. 181.
1500.
37
JOHN AND SEBASTIAN CABOTA.
enrolled this deserving foreigner in the list of her
citizens.
THE CORTEREALS. 1500.
The Portugueze, not content with having dis-
covered a route to India by sailing round the tem-
pestuous extremity of Africa, soon after engaged in
an equally dangerous enterprize ;—that of finding
a route to India and the Spice islands, by sailing
westward round the northern extremity of
America.
This bold undertaking was reserved for the
CORTEREALS, the enlightened disciples of the
school of Sagres. The first navigator of the
name of Cortereal, who engaged in this enterprize,
was JOHN VAZ COSTA CORTEREAL, a gentleman of
the household of the Infanta Don Fernando-
who, accompanied by Alvaro Martens Hornen,
explored the northern seas, by order of King
Alfonso the Fifth, and discovered the Terra de
Baccalhaos (the land of cod fish) afterwards called
Newfoundland.
This voyage is mentioned by Cordeiro,* but he
does not state the exact date, which however is
ascertained to have been in 1463 or 1464; for, on
their return from the discovery of Newfoundland,
or Terra Nova, they touched at the island of
Terceira, the captaincy of which island having
* Historia Insulana, Cordeiro, 1 vol. fol.
D 3
38
1500,
DISCOVERIES OF
become vacant by the death of Jacome Bruges,
they solicited the appointment, and in reward
for their services the request was granted, their
patent commission being dated in Evora, 2d
April, 1464.
Notwithstanding this early date of a voyage
across the Atlantic, there exists no document to
prove that any thing further was done by the Por-
tugueze, in the way of discovery, till towards the
close of the fifteenth century; and if the evidence
of that in question rested on this single testimony
of Cordeiro, and on the fact of the patent, it
would scarcely be considered as sufficiently strong
to deprive the Cabotas of the honour of being the
first who discovered Newfoundland; at the same
time if the patent should specify the service for
which it was granted, and that service is stated to be
the discovery of Newfoundland, the evidence would
go
far in favour of the elder Cortereal. But there is
another indirect testimony afforded by Francisco
de Souza,* who in 1570 wrote a treatise on the
New Islands; and of their discovery; as also con-
cerning those Portugueze who went from Vianna,
and from the islands of the Azores, to people the
Terra Nova do Baccalhao twenty years before that
period; which would prove that the Portugueze
not only were in the habit of fishing on the banks
* Tratado das Ilhas novas, &c. 1570.
Bibliotheca Lusitana.
1500.
39
THE CORTEREALS.
of Newfoundland, but of settling there also,
towards the close of the fifteenth century.
The arduous enterprize of prosecuting disco-
veries in the northern seas would seem however
to have been reserved exclusively for the family of
the Cortereals; for it does not appear that any person
had attempted, on the part of Portugal, to explore
those seas navigated by John Vaz Cortereal, the
father, nor by any nation, except Cabota in behalf
of England, until the time of his son Gaspar
Cortereal.
The two ships which had been prepared for this
voyage, and put under his command, sailed from
Lisbon in the summer of 1500-for although
Galvam says that they sailed from the island of
Terceira, this must only be understood on account
of their having touched there to receive refresh-
ments, to complete their crews, and to afford
Cortereal an opportunity of taking leave of that
part of his family which was settled in that
island.
Departing from the Azores, or Western Islands,
they steered a course which, as far as they knew,
had never but once before been traced by any navi-
gator, till they discovered land to the northward,
to which they gave the name of Terra Verde-that
is, Greenland. Galvam places it (although with
little accuracy) in 50°*-and others, particularly
* Misprinted probably for 60°, which would be correct.
D +
40
1500.
DISCOVERIES OF ·
Goes, describe the qualities of the country, and
the manners of the inhabitants.
In the first collection of voyages which is
known to have been published in Europe, and
printed in Vicenza, by Francazano Montaboldo,*
there is inserted a letter from Pedro Pascoal,
ambassador from the republic of Venice to the
court of Lisbon, addressed to his brother in
Italy, and dated 29th October 1501, in which he
details the voyage of Cortereal, as told by himself
on his return.
From this authority, it appears that, having
employed nearly a year in this voyage, he had
discovered, between west and northwest, a con-
tinent until then unknown to the rest of the
world; that he had run along the coast upwards
of eight hundred miles; that according to his con-
jecture this land lay near a region formerly ap-
proached by the Venetians,† almost at the North
Pole; and that lie was unable to proceed farther
on account of the great mountains of ice which
incumbered the sea, and the continued snows
which fell from the sky.
He further relates that Cortereal brought fifty-
seven of the natives in his vessels-he extols the
country on account of the timber which it pro-
* Mundo Nuovo é Paesi nuovamente retrovati, &c. Vicenza,
1507; a very rare book; translated into Latin, by Madrigano,
under the title of "Itinerarium Portugalensium è Lusitania in
Indiam, &c."
+ Nicolo and Antonio Zeno.
1500.
41
THE CORTEREALS.
duces, the abundance of fish upon its coasts, and
the inhabitants being robust and laborious.
To this evidence may also be added that of
Ramusio, whose accuracy in such matters is well
known. The following extract is taken from his
discourse on Terra Firma and the Oriental Islands.
"In the part of the new world which runs to
"the northwest, opposite to our habitable con-
"tinent of Europe, some navigators have sailed,
"the first of whom, as far as can be ascertained,
66
was Gaspar Cortereal, a Portugueze, who arrived
"there in the year 1500 with two caravels,
"thinking that he might discover some strait
"through which he might pass, by a shorter
(6 voyage than round Africa, to the Spice islands.
They prosecuted their voyage in those seas
"until they arrived at a region of extreme cold;
"and in the latitude of 60° north they discovered
"a river filled with ice, to which they gave the
"name of Rio Nevado-that is, Snow River.
66
66
They had not courage however to proceed farther,
"all the coast which runs from Rio Nevado to
"Porto das Malvas (Mallow Port) which lies in
"56°, and which is a space of two hundred leagues,
66
66
was well peopled, and they landed and brought
away some of the inhabitants-Cortereal also
"discovered many islands, all inhabited, and to-
"each of which he gave a name.
We shall
presently see what islands these were.
??
Ramusio, Navigat. et Viaggi.
?
42
1500.
DISCOVERIES OF
This great country discovered by Cortereal is
evidently that which at present is known under
the name of Labrador, or rather Lavrador-a
Portugueze word which characterises the inha-
bitants.
As a further proof that this is the fact, there
is a map in an old edition of Ptolemy, published
in Rome in 1508, which gives to the land of
Lavrador the name of "Corterealis," and on it is
laid down the island of Demonios (Demons) on
account of the trouble which the ships had there
experienced.
Sebastian Munster, in his Chorography, printed
for the first time in Basle in 1544, gives to New-
foundland itself (Terra Nova) the name of
Cortereal, and the celebrated Abraham Ortelius
not only calls the land of Lavrador, Cortereal,
but he marks the Rio Nevado, and Bahia da Serra,
close to the entrance of the strait now named
Hudson's; and he places nearly in the middle of
it, a river which he calls Rio da Tormenta, (Storm
River,) to which succeeds another bay called
Bahia das Medas (Rick Bay.) It does not how-
ever follow that, because all these names are Por-
tugueze, they must have first been given by Gaspar
Cortereal, nor that he actually entered Hudson's
Bay, though the probability is in favour of such a
supposition, if we take into consideration all the
collateral circumstances of the narrative.
The same doubt however does not occur in
1500.
43
THE CORTEREALS.
regard to the river St. Lawrence. Even without
specific evidence it might safely have been con-
cluded that, as a passage to India was the grand
object of research, so large an opening as is
presented by the mouth of this river could not
have escaped examination. Independent however
of this general reasoning, the evidence furnished
by Ramusio is decisive. In describing the prin-
cipal places on that coast, he says that beyond
Cabo do Gado (Cattle Cape) which is in 54 degrees,
it runs two hundred leagues to the westward, to
a great river called St. Lawrence, which some con-
sidered to be an arm of the sea, and which the
Portugueze ascended to the distance of many
leagues.
The extent of this navigation was probably
limited to the ascertaining that it was not an arm
of the sea, but a large river.
a large river. As to the name of
Canada, which was given to the country on the
right of the entrance, it was by many geographers
confined to a village situated at the confluence of
the Seguenai, and according to most writers ori-
ginated in the following circumstance:-When
the Portugueze first ascended the river, under the
idea that it was a strait, through which a passage
to the Indies might be discovered-on arriving at
the point where they ascertained that it was not
a strait, but a river, they, with all the emphasis of
disappointed hopes, exclaimed repeatedly, Cà,
nada!—(here, nothing!) which words caught the
44
1500.
DISCOVERIES OF
attention of the natives, and were remembered
and repeated by them on seeing other Europeans,
under Jacques Cartier, arrive in 1534-but Cartier
mistakes the object of the Portugueze to have
been gold mines, not a passage to India; and if the
Portugueze account be true, he also mistook the ex-
clamation of Cà, nada, for the name of the country.
*
It has been already stated that, in the course of
this voyage, Cortereal discovered many islands,
which he found were inhabited, and to which he
gave Portugueze names. Ramusio, in his map,
lays down the Ilha dos Baccalhaos (Cod Island)
almost joining Terra de Cortereal; the island of
Boa Vista; and another which he names "Monte
de Trigo" (wheat heap or hill); and in the map of
Ortelius there is laid down, in lat. 43°, Ilha
Redonda (Round Island); in lat. 47°, Ilha da area
(Sand Island); and in lat. 57°, Ilha dos Cysnes
(Swan Island); and, finally, in the mouth of Hud-
son's Straits, he places a little islet under the name
of Caramilo-from which it may almost be con-
cluded that the Portugueze had been here also,
as this name is only a mis-spelling of the Por-
tugueze word Caramelo or Icicle.
These circumstances render it probable that
during the enthusiasm excited by the voyages of
Gama and of Magalhanes, other voyages were
undertaken, and countries described, by the Portu-
gueze, which subsequent events caused to be neg-
lected and forgotten.
1501.
45
THE CORTEREALS.
As Gaspar Cortereal was fully persuaded that a
north-west passage to India might be found, and
that its discovery would be honourable to himself
and highly advantageous to his country, he con-
tinued his preparations for a second expedition,
to which he had no difficulty in obtaining the
king's consent; and he sailed, accompanied by the
anxious prayers and hopes of his countrymen,
from the port of Lisbon, on the 15th of May, 1501,
with two vessels.
The voyage is said to have been prosperous
until they reached Terra Verde; but here he
was separated by bad weather from his consort,
who, after having long searched and waited
for him in vain, returned to Lisbon, with the
melancholy tidings of what had happened. It
is stated, in several of the collections of voyages,
that the name of Anian was given to the Strait
supposed to have been discovered by Gaspar, in
honour of two brothers who accompanied him;
but there are no grounds whatever for such a sup-
position, nor for that of other geographers who
pretend that the name of Ania, as applicable to the
north-western extremity of America, is mentioned
by Marco Polo as a province of China, there being
no such province in China, nor any such men-
tioned by Marco Polo. The origin of the word
is, in fact, utterly unknown.*
* In the earliest maps Ania is marked as the name of the north-
western part of America. Ani in the Japanese language is said
to signify brother; hence probably the mistake.
46
1502.
DISCOVERIES OF
Michael Cortereal, grand door-keeper of the
king Don Manuel, seeing himself thus deprived
of a brother for whom he entertained the warmest
affection, would not entrust the task of sending in
search of him to any other, and therefore he him-
self set sail with three vessels from Lisbon, on the
10th of May, 1502.
Antonio Galvam informs us that, upon their
reaching the coast, they discovered many rivers and
openings, and each vessel entered a separate one,
with the understanding that they should all meet at
a certain point on the 20th of August. Two of the
vessels did so meet, but Miguel de Cortereal did
not appear, nor was any thing more ever heard of
him; and the only memorial of his and his bro-
ther's fate is the name of Cortereal given to the
country.
When these two vessels returned to Lisbon with
the melancholy news of the loss of this second
Cortereal, there remained yet a third brother,
Vasco Eanes, master of the household, and one of
the privy council of king Don Manuel, who im-
mediately prepared to set out in search of his lost
brothers; but no entreaty, no influence, could ob-
tain the king's consent, who constantly replied
that in this undertaking he had already lost two
of his most faithful servants and valuable friends,
and was resolved at least to preserve the third; he
very readily, however, granted leave for other
vessels being prepared and dispatched on this
1503.
47
THE CORTEREALS.
search; but they also returned without
ligence of these unfortunate navigators.
any
intel-
Notwithstanding these disasters, those voyages
were nevertheless productive of great advantages
to Portugal: they led to the establishment of a
settlement on Newfoundland and to the prose-
cution of very extensive fisheries, in which were
employed, at one period, between two and three
hundred vessels from the ports of Vianna and
Aveiro alone. But when Portugal had passed
under the dominion of Spain, her commerce lan-
guished and her marine was destroyed, from the
combined effect of domestic oppression and foreign
war; and the ports both of Aveiro and Vianna
are at present, and have been for many years, by
sheer neglect, nearly choaked with sand and mud,
and can no longer receive vessels of burthen.
The family of Cortereal has long been extinct,
but it was for many years one of the most distin-
guished in Portugal. The family name was ori-
ginally Costa or Coste, and of French extraction,
having come to Portugal along with the Count
Alfonso Henriquez, under whom one of the Costas
served in the taking of Lisbon and conquering of
Portugal from the Moors.
The family settled in Algarve; and when John
Vaz da Costa (some say his father) came to the
Portugueze court, he used to live in such a style of
splendour and hospitality, that the king observed
to him, "Your presence, Costa, in my court,
48
1503.
DISCOVERIES, &c.
makes it a real court." Others say, that it was
not on account of his magnificent style of living,
but of his personal prowess on a particular occa-
sion. Two strangers having appeared at court,
and, according to the manners of the times, chal-
lenged any of the courtiers to wrestle or combat,
Cortereal immediately accepted the challenge, and
civilly shook hands with his antagonist before the
contest; but so prodigious was the strength of
Cortereal (until then called Costa) that he squeezed
the stranger's hand until he cried out, in the greatest
pain, that he could not attempt to contend with a
man possessed of such extraordinary strength; on
which occasion the king is represented as being so
delighted, that he exclaimed, “Truly, Costa, your
presence makes my court a real court."*
* Mém. de Littérat. Portug. vol. viii. Lisbon, 1812.
An Essay, by Sebastaō Francisco Mendez Trigozo.
1534.
( 49 )
CHAPTER II.
DISCOVERIES MADE IN THE NORTH DURING THE
SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
1
}
Aubert and Jacques Cartier-Estevan Gomez—The Domi-
nus Vobiscum - The Trinitie and the Minion-Sir Hugh
Willoughby-Richard Chancellor and Stephen Burrough
-Sir Martin Frobisher - Edward Fenton-Arthur Pit
and Charles Jackman - Sir Humphrey Gilbert-John
Davis- Maldonado-Juan de Fuca-Barentz-Wil-
liam Adams.
AUBERT AND JACQUES CARTIER. 1508 and 1534.
THE French may almost be said to be the only
maritime people of Europe who have seen, with
apparent indifference, the exertions made by other
nations for the discovery of a passage to India,
either by the north-east or the north-west. Yet
they very early availed themselves of the disco-
veries of others: for we find the Normans and
Bretons, at the commencement of the sixteenth
century, frequenting the banks of Newfoundland
for the purpose of fishing; and one of their
navigators, named AUBERT or HUBERT, sailed from
Dieppe in 1508, in a ship called the Pensée, with
the view, as it would seem, to examine the shores
VOL. I.
•
E
V
50
1535.
DISCOVERIES OF
of Newfoundland, from whence he brought back
to Paris one of the natives; but it does not ap-
pear that any further discovery was the object of
this voyage. Perhaps, however, the expedition of
JACQUES CARTIER in 1534, under the auspices of
Francis I., might be called a voyage of discovery,
undertaken with the view of finding a short route
to those countries, from which Spain derived so
much wealth. The discovery he actually made, or
at least claimed, was that of the gulf and river of
Saint Lawrence; though there can be little doubt
that Cortereal preceded him, and indeed it is gene-
rally supposed that even Velasco had been before
him. The etymology of the word Canada (already
noticed*) has even been ascribed to the visit of
Velasco, with as little accuracy perhaps as that
which had before been assigned by Cortereal. It
is stated that the former, disappointed in not finding
any of the precious metals, in hastening to return,
called out to his people Aca nada, "there is nothing
here," which words being repeated by the natives
to the next Europeans they saw, it was concluded
that Canada was the name of the country; but both
may probably be thought too forced and fanciful
to be real. Cartier, in the narrative of his second
voyage up the St. Lawrence in 1535, gives a more
probable derivation of the name, when he says
that an assemblage of houses or a town is called
*
Under Art. “Cortereal.”
1535.
51
AUBERT AND J. CARTIER.
canada in the language of the natives-ilz appel-
lent une ville, Canada.*
The subsequent voyages of Roberval and of the
Marquis de la Roche had no other object of dis-
covery than that of gold, or of finding out a
desirable spot to establish a colony on the coast of
America; and though they contain many very
curious and interesting transactions with the
native Indians, they come not within the scope of
the present history, which is meant to be confined to
the more northern regions. We hasten, therefore,
to those brilliant periods of early English enter-
prize, so conspicuously displayed in every quarter
of the globe; but in none, probably, to greater
advantage, than in those bold and persevering
efforts to pierce through frozen seas, in their little
slender barks of the most miserable description,
ill provided with the means either of comfort or
safety, without charts or instruments, or any pre-
vious knowledge of the cold and inhospitable
regions through which they had to force and to
feel their way; their vessels oft beset amidst end-
less fields of ice, and threatened to be overwhelmed
with instant destruction from the rapid whirling
and bursting of those huge floating masses, known
by the name of ice-bergs: yet, so powerfully in-
fused into the minds of Britons was the spirit of
* In his vocabulary of the language he calls a town "Canada."
-Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 232.
E 2
52
1524.
DISCOVERIES OF
enterprize, that some of the ablest, the most learned,
and most respectable men of the times, not only
lent their countenance and support to expeditions
fitted out for the discovery of new lands, but
strove eagerly, in their own persons, to share in the
glory and the danger of every daring adventure.
In point of time, however, there is one solitary
voyage on record, though the particulars of it are
so little known as almost to induce a suspicion
whether any such voyage was ever performed,
which takes precedence of any foreign voyage on
the part of English navigators; it is that of a
Spaniard, or rather perhaps, judging from the name,
of a Portugueze, for the discovery of a northern
passage to the Moluccas; and still more probably a
Portugueze, from the circumstance of his having
accompanied Magelhanes on his voyage into the
south seas round the southern extremity of the
continent of America. The following vague ac-
count is all that can now be collected of Estevan
or Steven Gomez.
ESTEVAN GOMEZ. 1524.
The attempts which had been made by John
and Sebastian Cabota on the part of England, by
Cortereal on that of Portugal, and by Aubert or
Hubert, who was sent out by the French, to pro-
secute discoveries in the north, very naturally
alarmed the jealousy of the Spaniards, who, on.
1
1524.
53
ESTEVAN GOMEZ.
account of their rich and valuable possessions in
the east, were the most interested in confining the
way to them to that, which should be as intricate and
difficult as possible. The two grand routes to those
possessions, which the two Portugueze, Vasco de
Gama and Magelhanes, had succeeded in discover-
ing, were, it is true, both long and tedious, and, in
those early periods of navigation, not altogether free
from danger. That circumstance alone might not,
therefore, have been sufficient to excite investigation
on the part of Spain, if she had not witnessed other
nations attempting to discover a shorter way to
China and the Indies by the north. It would have
argued the extreme of indifference, if the nation
most interested in the speedy intercourse with the
wealthy countries of the east should have been the
most backward in profiting by those discoveries
already made, and which augured such happy
results. Accordingly we find that in the year
1524, Estevan Gomez, a supposed skilful navigator,
employed on the part of Spain, sailed from Corunna
with a view of discovering a northern passage to
the Molucca islands from the Atlantic. This
Gomez, as before mentioned, had sailed with
Magelhanes on his voyage of discovery into the
south seas. He was therefore personally acquainted
with the difficulties and delays of a passage by
that route, and capable of estimating the compa-
rative advantages of one round the northern ex-
tremity of America. But to what part of the coast
E 3
54
1524.
DISCOVERIES OF
of America, or Newfoundland, or Labrador, he
directed his course is not at all known. It is
evident, however, that he returned without bring-
ing back with him any hope of a passage into
the eastern seas, having contented himself with
seizing and bringing off some of the natives of the
coast on which he had touched. It is said, that
one of his friends, accosting him on his return,
inquired with eagerness what success he had met
with, and what he had brought back; to which
Gomez replying shortly esclavos (slaves), the friend
concluded he had accomplished his purpose, and
brought back a cargo of cloves (clavos).
this," says Purchas, "he posted to the court to
carry the first news of this spicy discovery, looking
for a great reward; but the truth being known,
caused hereat great laughter."*
"On
Gaspar, in his history of the Indies, is the only
authority for this voyage, of which and of Steven
Gomez, as Purchas has observed, "little is left us
but a jest."
The Spaniards were not less alarmed on the side
of the Pacific than they were at home. Cortez,
the conqueror and viceroy of Mexico, had received
intelligence of the attempt of Cortereal to dis-
cover a northern passage from the Atlantic into
the Pacific, and of his having entered a strait, to
which he gave the name of Anian. Alive to the
importance of the intelligence, he lost not a mo-
* Purchas his Pilgrimage, vol. v. p. 810,
1
1542.
55
ESTEVAN GOMEZ.
ment in fitting out three ships well manned, of
which he is said to have taken the command in
person, though nominally under the orders of
Francisco Ulloa, to look out for the opening of
this strait into the Pacific, and to oppose the pro-
of the Portugueze and other Europeans who
might attempt this passage. Little is known con-
cerning this expedition of Cortez, but that it soon
returned without meeting with Cortereal, or dis-
covering any thing that could lead to the suppo-
sition of a passage from those seas to the Atlantic.
gress
The Spaniards, however, were by no means
easy at the attempts, feeble as they had hitherto
been, to reach the Pacific by a northern route.
Accordingly, in 1542, the viceroy Mendoza sent
Coronado by land and Alarçon by sea to the north-
ward from Mexico, to inquire into and, if possible,
to discover the strait of Anian, which was then
supposed to be the western opening of the passage
into the Pacific; but both expeditions returned
without having effected any discovery that could
lead to the supposition of the existence of such a
passage being well grounded.
The court of Spain were by no means satisfied
with such negative testimonies, and gave orders,
two years afterwards, for another expedition, the
conduct of which was entrusted to Juan Rod-
riguez de Cabrillo, a Portugueze in the service
of Spain. He proceeded along the north-west
coast of America as far as the latitude 44°, and
E 4
56
1527.
DISCOVERIES IN
gave the name of Cape Mendocino, in compliment
of the viceroy, to the land seen about the latitude
42°. The want of provisions, the sickness of the
crew, the weakness of the ship, the turbulent sea,
and the cold weather, were assigned as the reasons
for their return, without proceeding to a higher
degree of latitude; and it may well be a subject
of wonder, that this enterprizing nation, the first
which was firmly established on the coasts and
islands of the Pacific, should have been the last
to make discoveries in that part of the world.
THE DOMINUS VOBISCUM. 1527.
We ought, perhaps, to be less surprized at the
indifference shewn for northern discovery by the
maritime nations of Europe, when we find that,
notwithstanding the liberal encouragement given
by Henry VII. and his successor Edward VI.,
to Sebastian Cabota, the spirit of enterprize seems
to have lain dormant in England for thirty years
nearly; at least no memorial of any voyage under-
taken either for profit or discovery is left on record
during that period. In fact the real spirit of ad-
venture had not yet stimulated the mercantile part
of the nation to engage in foreign trade or to make
discoveries; and so little impression had the ex-
ploits of Cabota and his suggestions for following
them up
made on the minds of the people of Eng-
land, or of the government, that this great pilot
1527.
57
THE DOMINUS VOBISCUM.
seems to have left the country in disgust, and
entered into the service of Spain; from whence
he was probably drawn, in the reign of Edward
VI., on promise of the pension already mentioned,
or, in general terms, of the king's patronage. It
would seem, indeed, that although the prowess of
English seamen had oft-times been displayed in
contests on their native element with their con-
tinental neighbours, in "carrackes, barges and
balyngers," the kings of England, or their coun-
sellors, were not yet aware of the great advantages
of foreign trade and foreign enterprize towards the
formation of a military marine. There is, how-
ever, a document preserved in Hakluyt's collection,
in the shape of a poem, complaining of the neglect
of the navy in the time of Henry VI., and extolling
"the policee of keeping the see in the time of the
marvellous werriour and victorious prince, King
Henry the Fift, and of his grete shippes."
"When at Hampton, he made the Great Dromons,
Which passed other grete shippes of the Commons,
The Trinitie, the Grace de Dieu, the Holy Ghost
And other moe, which as now be lost,
What hope ye was the king's grete intent,
Of thoo shippes, and what in mind he meant.
It was not ellis, but that he cast to bee
Lord Round-about, environ of the see."*
At length, however, the spirit of discovery and
foreign enterprize burst forth in the reign of Henry
* English Policie exhorting all England to keepe the see, &c.-
Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 187. ·
58
1527.
DISCOVERIES IN
VIII., and flourished in full vigour under the
fostering hand of Elizabeth. The first enterprize
undertaken solely by Englishmen, of which we
have any record, was at the suggestion of Master
Robert Thorne, of Bristol, who is said to have ex-
horted King Henry VIII. "with very weighty
and substantial reasons to set forth a discoverie
even to the North Pole," which voyage, as would
appear from the Chronicles of Hall and Grafton,
actually took place; for they inform us that
"King Henry VIII. sent two faire ships well
manned and victualled, having in them divers
cunning men to seek strange regions, and so they
set forth out of the Thames the 20th day of May,
in the 19th yeere of his raigne, which was the yere
of our Lord 1527."* Hakluyt took great pains to
discover who these cunning men were, but all he
could learn was that one of the ships was called
the DOMINUS VOBISCUM, and that a canon of St.
Paul's, in London, a great mathematician and
wealthy man, went therein himself in person; that
having sailed very far north-westward, one of the
ships was cast away on entering into a dangerous
gulph, about the great opening between the north
parts of Newfoundland and Meta incognita or
Greenland, and the other returned home about the
beginning of October: "and this," says Hakluyt,
"is all that I can hitherto learne or finde out of
this voyage, by reason of the great negligence of
I
* Chronicles quoted by Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 129.
1536.
59
THE DOMINUS VOBISCUM.
the writers of those times, who should have used
more care in preserving of the memories of the
worthy actes of our nation."*
THE TRINITIE AND THE MINION. 1536.
This voyage, we are told by Hakluyt, was set
forth by Master Hore, of London, “a man of
goodly stature and of great courage, and given to
the studie of cosmographie." Assisted by the
king's favour, several gentlemen were encouraged
to accompany him in a voyage of discovery upon
the north-west parts of America, many of whom
were of the Inns of Court and of Chancery; "and
divers others of good worship, desirous to see the
strange things of the world. The whole number
that went in the two tall ships were about sixe-
score persons, whereof thirty were gentlemen,
which were all mustered in warlike maner at
Gravesend, and after the receiving of the sacra-
ment they embarked themselves in the ende of
Aprill, 1536."+
After a tedious passage of two months they
reached in safety Cape Breton; and shaping a
course from thence to the north-east came to Pen-
66
guin island, " very full of rocks and stones,
whereon they went and found it full of great
* Hakluyt's Voyages, vol. iii. p. 129.
+ Idem.
60
1536.
DISCOVERIES IN
foules white and gray, as big as geese, and they
saw infinite numbers of their egges." These birds
they skinned and found to be good and nourishing
meat, and the great store of bears, both black and
white, was no mean resource, and, as we are told,
no bad food.
Mr. Oliver Dawbeney, merchant of London,
who was one of the adventurers on board the
MINION, related to Mr. Richard Hakluyt the fol-
lowing curious circumstances concerning this early
voyage:
"That after their arrivall in Newfoundland, and
having bene there certaine dayes at ancre, and not
having yet seene any of the naturall people of the
countrey, the same Dawbeney walking one day on
the hatches spied a boate with savages of those
parts, rowing downe the bay toward them, to gaze
upon the ship and our people, and taking vewe of
their comming aloofe, he called to such as were
under the hatches, and willed them to come up if
they would see the natural people of the countrey,
that they had so long and so much desired to see:
whereupon they came up and tooke viewe of the
savages rowing toward them and their ship, and
upon the viewe they manned out a ship-boat to
meet them and to take them. But they spying
our ship-boat making towards them, returned with
maine force and fled into an island that lay up in
the bay or river there, and our men pursued them
into the island and the savages fledde and escaped;
1536.
61
THE TRINITIE AND MINION.
but our men found a fire and the side of a beare, on
a wooden spit, left at the same by the savages
that were fled.
"There, in the same place, they found a boote
of leather, garnished on the outward side of the
calfe with certaine brave trailes, as it were of rawe
silke, and found a certaine great warme mitten.
And these caryed with them, they returned to
their shippe, not finding the savages, nor seeing any
thing else besides the soyle, and the things growing
in the same, which chiefly were store of firre and
pine trees.
"And further the said Mr. Dawbeney told him,
that lying there they grew into great want of vic-
tuals, and that there they found small reliefe,
more than that they had from the nest of an osprey,
that brought hourely to her yong great plentie of
divers sorts of fishes. But such was the famine
that encreased amongst them from day to day, that
they were forced to seeke to relieve themselves of
raw herbes and rootes that they sought on the
maine but the famine encreasing, and the reliefe
of herbes being to little purpose to satisfie their
insatiable hunger, in the fieldes and deserts here
and there, the fellow killed his mate while he
stooped to take up a roote for his reliefe, and
cutting out pieces of his bodie whom he had mur-
thered, broyled the same on the coles and greedily
devoured them.
By this meane the company decreased, and
62
1536.
DISCOVERIES IN
the officers knew not what had become of them;
and it fortuned that one of the company, driven
with hunger to seeke abroade for reliefe, found out
in the fieldes the savour of broyled flesh, and fell
out with one for that he would suffer him and his
fellowes to sterve, enjoying plentie as he thought;
and this matter growing to cruell speaches, he that
had the broyled meate burst out into these
wordes: If thou wouldest needes know, the
broyled meate I had was a piece of such a man's
buttocke. The report of this brought to the ship,
the captaine found what became of those that were
missing, and was perswaded that some of them
were neither devoured with wilde beastes nor yet
destroyed with savages: and hereupon he stood
up and made a notable oration, containing howe
much these dealings offended the Almightie, and
vouched the Scriptures from first to last what God
had, in cases of distresse, done for them that called
upon him, and told them that the power of the
Almighty was then no lesse, then in al former
time it had bene. And added, that if it had not
pleased God to have holpen them in that distresse,
that it had been better to have perished in body,
and to have lived everlastingly, then to have
relieved for a poore time their mortal bodyes, and
to be condemned everlastingly both body and
soule to the unquenchable fire of hell. And thus
having ended to that effect, he began to exhort to
repentance, and besought all the company to pray,
1536.
63
THE TRINITIE AND MINION.
that it might please God to look upon their present
miserable state, and for his owne mercie to relieve
the same. The famine encreasing, and the incon-
venience of the men that were missing being found,
they agreed amongst themselves, rather than all
should perish, to cast lots who should be killed;
and such was the mercie of God, that the same
night there arrived a French ship in that port,
well furnished with vittaile, and such was the
policie of the English that they became masters
of the same, and changing ships and vittailing
them they set sayle to come into England.
"In their journey they were so farre northwards,
that they saw mighty islands of yce in the sommer
season on which were hawkes and other foules to
rest themselves being weary of flying over farre
from the maine. They sawe also certaine great
white foules with red bils and red legs, somewhat
bigger than herons, which they supposed to be
storkes. They arrived at S. Ives in Cornewall
about the ende of October, from thence they
departed unto a certain castle belonging to Sir
John Luttrell, where M. Thomas Buts, and M.
Rastall, and other gentlemen of the voyage, were
very friendly entertained; after that they came to
the Earle of Bathe at Bathe, and thence to Bristol,
so to London. M. Buts was so changed in the
voyage with hunger and miserie, that Sir William
his father, and my Lady his mother, knew him not
to be their sonne, until they found a secret mark,
64
1536.
DISCOVERIES IN
which was a wart, upon one of his knees, as he
told me, Richard Hakluyt of Oxford, himselfe ;
to whom I rode 200 miles to learn the whole
trueth of this voyage from his own mouth, as being
the onely man now alive that was in this dis-
coverie.
"Certaine months after, those Frenchmen came
into England, and made complaint to king Henry
the VIII.; the king, causing the matter to be ex-
amined, and finding the great distresse of his sub-
iects and the causes of dealing so with the French,
was so mooved with pitie, that he punished not his
subiects, but of his owne purse made full and
royall recompence unto the French.
"In this distresse of famine, the English did
somewhat relieve their vitall spirits, by drinking
at the springs the fresh water out of certaine
wooden cups, out of which they had drunke their
aqua composita before."*
SIR HUGH WILLOUGHBY. 1553.
The attention of the merchants of England en-
gaged in foreign trade appears to have chiefly been
confined to the Flemish towns, the island of Ice-
land, and to a limited fishery on the banks of
Newfoundland, during the first half of the six-
* Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 130.
1536.
65
SIR HUGH WILLOUGHBY.
teenth century.
Cabota, and the knowledge of his great enter-
prizes in the service of Spain, infused into the
minds of the merchants of England that spirit
of enlarged adventure which had but feebly shewn
itself at the commencement of the century, and
then confined to one quarter of the globe. The
reputation of this able navigator was so firmly
established on his return to England that, in ad-
dition to the liberal pension granted to him by
Edward VI., he was constituted Grand Pilot of
England, and "Governour of the mysterie and
companie of the marchants adventurers for the
discoverie of regions, dominions, islands. and
places unknowen." It was at his suggestion that
a voyage was undertaken in the year 1553 for the
discovery of a north-east passage to Cathaia; and
the ordinances and instructions drawn up by him
on this occasion are such as do him infinite honour,
not only for the chaste style in which they are
written, but also for the liberal and enlightened
sentiments which run throughout this early per-
formance.*
But the return of Sebastian
The ships fitted out for this expedition of dis-
covery were the Bona Esperanza, Admiral of the
fleet, of the burden of 120 tons, having with her a
* Ordinances, Instructions, &c. by M. Sebastian Cabota, Esquier.
Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 226.
VOL. I.
F
66
1553.
DISCOVERIES OF
pinnace and a boat; and SIR HUGH WILLOUGHBY,
Knight, as Captain General of the fleet, was
appointed to command her: the Edward Bonad
venture, of 160 tons, with a pinnace and a boat, the
command of which was given to Richard Chan-
celor, Captain and Pilot-Major of the fleet, and
Steven Burough was master of the ship: and the
Bona Confidentia of 90 tons, having also a pinnace
and a boat, of which Cornelius Durfoorth was master.
The number of persons in the first ship was thirty-
five, including six merchants; in the second fifty,
including two merchants; and in the third twenty-
eight, including three merchants.
This first regular expedition for discoveries
excited the most lively interest at the court and
in the capital; and so sanguine were the promoters
of the voyage of its success in reaching the Indian
seas, that they caused the ships to be sheathed
with lead as a protection against the worms which,
they had understood, were destructive of wooden
sheathing in the Indian climates,* and these are pro-
bably the first ships that in England were coated
with a metallic substance. From the account of the
* Clement Adams's account of the voyage. Hakluyt, vol.
i. p. 243.
↑ Sheathing with lead was in use till the reign of Charles II. but
was discontinued on account of its wearing away irregularly and
so soon washing bare in places, as to let in the worms; and
sheathing with wood was adopted in its place. In 1708, a pro-
posal was made to the Navy Board to sheath ships with copper,
1553
67
SIR HUGH WILLOUGHBY.
voyage written by Clement Adams, "schoolemaster
to the Queene's henshmen," it would appear that
several persons of great experience were candidates
for the command, but that Sir Hugh Willoughby,
a valiant gentleman and well born, was preferred
before all others, "both by reason of his goodly
personage (for he was of tall stature) as also for his
singular skill in the services of warre." On the
day appointed for the sailing of the expedition
from Ratcliffe, which was the 20th May, "they
saluted their acquaintance, one his wife, another his
children, and another his kinsfolkes, and another
his friends deerer than his kinsfolkes;" after which
the ships dropped down to Greenwich, where the
court then was. The great ships were towed down
by the boats, "the marriners being all apparelled
in watchet or skie-coloured cloth. The courtiers.
came running out and the common people flockt
together, standing very thicke upon the shoare;
the Privie Consel, they lookt out at the win-
dowes of the court, and the rest ranne up to the
toppes of the towers; the shippes hereupon dis-
charge their ordinance, and shoot off their pieces
after the maner of warre, and of the sea, insomuch
which was rejected without a trial. About sixty years after it
obtained a trial and was favourably reported on-yet, so very
difficult is the introduction of any thing new, that, ten years
after this experiment, in Admiral Keppel's fleet, there was but
one line of battle ship that was coppered.-M. S. Memoirs of
the Navy.
F 2
68
1553.
DISCOVERIES OF
that the tops of the hilles sounded therewith, the
valleys and the waters gave an echo, and the
mariners they shouted in such sort, that the skie
rang againe with the noise thereof.”*
The result of this voyage, which held out such
fair promises, was most disastrous to the gallant
Sir Hugh Willoughby and his brave associates;
who, with the whole of the merchants, officers and
ship's company, as well as those of the Bona Con-
fidentia, to the number of seventy persons, perished
miserably from the effects of cold or hunger, or
both, on a barren and uninhabited part of the
eastern coast of Lapland, at the mouth of a river
called Arzina, not far from the harbour of Kegor.
The ships and the dead bodies of those who thus
perished were discovered the following year by
some Russian fishermen; and by some papers found
in the admiral's ship, and especially by the date of
his Will, it appeared that Sir Hugh Willoughby and
most of the company of the two ships were alive in
January 1554. They had entered the river on the
18th of September preceding. No papers, however,
were ever published to give the least account of their
proceedings and sufferings, which is somewhat sin,
gular; as even common seamen, English, Dutch and
Russians, who, at various times, have wintered in
much higher latitudes, have kept regular journals of
their proceedings. That of Sir Hugh is exceed-
* Clement Adams. Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 245.
1553.
69
SIR HUGH WILLOUGHBY.
ingly meagre, terminates just after their arrival
in the Arzina, and contains only the following
paragraph respecting their distressed situation.
"Thus remaining in this haven the space of
a weeke, seeing the yeere farre spent, and also very
evill wether, as frost, snowe and haile, as though
it had been the deepe of winter, we thought
it best to winter there. Wherefore we sent out
three men south south-west, to search if they could
find people, who went three dayes journey, but
could finde none. After that we sent other three
westward four dayes journey, which also returned
without finding any people. Then sent we three
men south-east three dayes journey, who in like
sorte returned without finding of people or any
similitude of habitation."*
"It is singular," says Mr. Pennant, “that so
very little has been preserved concerning that very
illustrious character, Sir Hugh Willoughby. It
appears that he was son of Sir Henry Willoughby,
Knight and Baronet, by his third wife Elen,
daughter of John Egerton, Esq. of Wrine Hall in
Cheshire. Sir Hugh married Jane, daughter of
Sir Nicholas Shelley, of Shelley, in the county of
Nottingham, Knight; by her he had a son named
Henry, of whom I do not find any account. They
were originally of Riseley in Derbyshire; Sir
Hugh is styled by Camden, of Riseley. They
* Sir H. Willoughby's note. Hakluyt, vol.
p. 236.
F 3
70
1553.
DISCOVERIES OF
changed their residence to Wollaton in Notting-
hamshire, the princely and venerable seat of Lord
Middleton, who acquired it by the marriage of his
ancestor, Sir Perceval Willoughby, with Brigitta,
daughter and sole heiress of Sir Francis Willough-
by, founder of that noble pile. The portrait of
the celebrated Sir Hugh is to be seen there; a
whole length, in very large breeches, according to
the fashion of the times, in a room hung with
velvet, with a table covered with velvet, and a
rich carpet. From his meagre appearance, the
servant tells you that it represents the attitude in
which he was found starved. This trivial account
is all that is left of so great a name.
""*
A better fortune attended Master Richard
Chancelor, in the Edward Bonaventure, who suc-
ceeded in reaching Wardhuys, in Norway, the
appointed rendezvous of the little squadron. Here
he waited seven days looking in vain for his con-
sorts, and was preparing to depart, when meeting
with "certaine Scottishmen" they earnestly at-
tempted to dissuade him from the further prosecu-
tion of the voyage, magnifying the danger and
using every effort to prevent his proceeding; but
he was not to be discouraged with "the speeches
and words of the Scots," and resolutely determined
"either to bring that to passe which was intended,
or els to die the death." Accordingly, on setting
* Pennant's Arct. Zool. Sup. p. 32.
}
1554.
71
SIR HUGH WILLOUGHBY.
out again," he held on his course towards that
unknowen part of the world, and sailed so farre
that hee came at last to the place where hee found
no night at all, but a continuall light and bright-
nesse of the sunne shining clearly upon the huge
and mighty sea." At length he entered into a
very great bay, and seeing a fishing-boat, en-
quired of the people "what country it is, and
what people, and of what maner of living they
were;" but these men seeing the large ship were
greatly alarmed and fled. At last, however, they
were overtaken, and immediately fell on their
knees, offering to kiss Master Chancelor's feet.
The report being spread abroad of the arrival of a
strange people "of singular gentlenesse and cour-
tesie," the inhabitants brought them presents of
provisions and entered readily and fearlessly into
trade with them.
Our navigators now learned that the name of
the country was Russia or Moscovie, and that of
their king Juan Vasilovich, who "ruled and go-
verned farre and wide in those places." A nego-
ciation speedily commenced, the result of which
was a journey, undertaken and performed by
Master Chancelor, of nearly fifteen hundred miles,
to a city called Mosco, where he was well received;
and to his discreet and able representations Eng-
land is indebted for the firm foundation of that
commerce with Russia, which has continued
almost without interruption ever since.
F 4
72
1555 and
DISCOVERIES OF
The first interview with the Czar of Mosco is
extremely interesting and curious. These adven-
turers were received with every mark of distinc-
tion, and invited to a splendid entertainment, at
which were present the Czar and all his nobles.
The display of gold and silver, the jewels and the
rich robes, perfectly astonished the English travel-
lers. The emperor kept them at great distance;
but Chancelor saluted him only in the manner of
the English court. On the second visit the Czar
was more familiar. "The prince called them to
his table to receive each a cup from his hand to
drinke, and took into his hand Master George
Killingworth's beard, which reached over the
table, and pleasantlie delivered it the Metropoli-
tane, who, seeming to blesse it, saide in Russ,
'this is God's gift;' as indeed at that time it was
not only thicke, broad, and yellow coloured, but
in length five foote and two inches of assize."
Shortly after this he was dispatched with a proper
escort to Archangel, with a letter from the Czar
addressed to Edward VI., and sailing from thence
the following spring arrived safely in England.
RICHARD CHANCELOR, AND STEVEN BUROUGH.
1555 and 1556.
The return of CHANCELOR to England with a
letter from the Czar Vasilovich addressed to Ed-
1556.
73
CHANCELOR AND BUROUGH.
ward VI., and the prospects of vast profits which a
trade with this extensive empire held forth, were
deemed to have amply compensated the melancholy
fate of Sir Hugh Willoughby, the supposed loss of
the two ships, and the failure of the expedition in
its main object; and Philip and Mary, who were
now on the throne, were readily prevailed on to grant
a new charter" to the community of merchants
adventurers," and to appoint Sebastian Cabota
governor thereof for the term of his natural life.
A commission was also issued, constituting Richard
Chancelor, George Killingworth, and Richard
Gray commissioners from Philip and Mary, to carry
a letter to, and to treat with, the Czar of Moscovie
concerning the commercial privileges and immu-
nities which he might be pleased to grant to this
newly chartered company. The Edward Bona-
venture and the Philip and Mary were the ships
appointed to carry out the commissioners, who, on
their arrival at Archangel, were escorted to Mosco,
where they were well received, and, we are told,
made a profitable voyage. But though commerce
was the immediate, it was not the only, object of
this second expedition. By an article of their
instructions the adventurers were particularly di-
rected "to use all wayes and meanes possible to
learne howe men may passe from Russia, either by
land or by sea, to Cathaia." And so anxious was
the company to follow up the attempt at a north-
east passage to the Indian seas, that, without
74
1555 and
DISCOVERIES OF
waiting the result of Chancelor's second voyage,
it was determined to fit out a small vessel the next
year, 1556, to make discoveries by sea to the east-
ward; and STEVEN BURROWE OF BUROUGH was ap-
pointed to command the Serchthrift pinnace fitted
out for this purpose. On the 27th April, being
then at Gravesend and ready for sea, the governor,
accompanied with several gentlemen and ladies,
paid a visit to the ship, " and the good olde gentle-
man Master Cabota gave to the poore most liberall
almes; and then, at the signe of the Christopher,
hee and his friends banketted, and made mee and
them that were in the company great cheere; and
for very joy that he had to see the towardness of
our intended discovery, he entered into the dance
himselfe, amongst the rest of the young and lusty
company." They left Gravesend on the 29th; on
the 23d May passed the North Cape, so named on
the first voyage, and on the 9th June entered the
river Cola, and determined its latitude to be 65°
48' N.
One of the numerous Russian vessels called
lodias, under the orders of one Gabriel, being
bound for Petchora, led the way for the Serchthrift
with great attention and civility until they came
to that river, which they reached on the 15th July.
In proceeding to the eastward they fell in with
much ice, in which they were enclosed before they
were aware of it, and "which was a feareful sight to
see." In latitude 70° 15′ they again encountered
1556.
75
CHANCELOR AND BUROUGH.
heaps of ice. But on the 25th they fell in with an
object which seems to have inspired greater terror
even than the ice. It was the first whale that our
navigators had met with, and the impression it
made on the crew is rather amusing. "On St.
James his day, bolting to the windewardes, we
had the latitude at noon in seventy degrees,
twentie minutes. The same day, at a south-west
sunne, there was a monstrous whale aboord of us,
so neere to our side that we might have thrust a
sworde or any other weapon in him, which we
durst not doe for feare hee should have over-
throwen our shippe; and then I called my com-
pany together, and all of us shouted, and with the
crie that we made he departed from us; there was
as much above water of his backe as the bredth
of our pinnesse, and at his falling downe he made
such a terrible noise in the water, that a man would
greatly have marvelled, except he had known the
cause of it; but, God be thanked, we were quietly
delivered of him."*
The same day they came to an island which
they named James's Island. Here they met with
a Russian who had seen them at Cola, and who
told them that the land a head of them was called
Nova Zembla, or the New Land. On the 31st
they reached the island of Weigats.
Here they
had intercourse with several Russians, and learned
* Hakluyt's English Voyages, vol. i. p. 280.
76
1556.
DISCOVERIES OF
from them that the people who inhabited the great
islands were called Samoeds, who have no houses
but tents made of deer's skins. On landing they
observed a heap of Samoeds' idols, at least three
hundred in number, in the shape of men, women,
and children, "very grossly wrought, and the
eyes
and mouth of sundrie of them were bloodie."
Some of them are described as being "an olde
sticke with two or three notches."
They remained near this place till the 23d
August, without being able to get farther to the
eastward on account of the constant north-east
and northerly winds, thick weather, and abundance
of ice; and on the 10th September they arrived at
Colmagro, where they remained for the winter.
In 1557 Burough returned to England, and was
afterwards made Comptroller of the Royal Navy.
In the mean time, Juan Vasilovich sent, as his
ambassador and orator to the court of London,
Osep Napea, who embarked on the 20th July,
1556, on board the Edward Bonaventure, in the
bay of St. Nicholas or Archangel, under the di-
rection of Richard Chancelor, Grand Pilot, and
accompanied by three other ships, the Bona Spe-
ranza, the Philip and Mary, and the Confidentia.
This homeward voyage was most disastrous. The
Confidentia was lost on the coast of Norway, and
all hands perished. The Bona Speranza wintered
at Drontheim, and was lost on her passage to
England; and the Edward Bonaventure, after
1556.
77
CHANCELOR AND BUROUGH.
being four months at sea, came into Pitsligo Bay,
on the east coast of Scotland, on the 10th Novem-
ber, 1556, and was there wrecked, when, with great
difficulty, the ambassador with a few of his atten-
dants were saved; but Richard Chancelor, the
Grand Pilot, and most of the crew were drowned.
We are told by the writer of this unfortunate
voyage, that "the whole masse and bodie of the
goods laden in her, was by the rude and ravenous
people of the country thereunto adjoining, rifled,
spoyled, and carried away, to the manifest losse
and utter destruction of all the lading of the said
ship."* The ambassador was conducted to Lon-
don in great pomp, and the connection between
the two nations was from that time drawn closer
every year. The English merchants trading with
Russia extended their commerce far beyond the
confines of that extensive empire; but as their dis-
coveries were made by land, they form no part of
the present plan, and could not with propriety be
introduced.
MARTIN FROBISHER-First Voyage. 1576.
While this rapid progress was making in the
north-east both by sea and land, under the auspices
of the company of merchants trading to Russia,
the question of a north-west passage round the
northern coast of America to Cathaia and the East
Voyages and Navigations, Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 286.
78
1576.
DISCOVERIES OF
Indies, was revived with greater ardour than at
any former period, and the pens of the most
learned men in the nation were employed to prove
the existence, the practicability, and the great
advantages of such a passage. Among others,
Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Mr. Richard Willes
composed very learned and ingenious discourses
on the subject. That of the former, in particular,
contains much curious argument in favour of such
a passage, and was well calculated to infuse a
spirit of practical inquiry and discovery among his
countrymen; and although it appears not to have
been printed until the year 1576, being that in
which FROBISHER made his first voyage, yet, having
been written many years before, while Sir Hum-
phrey was serving in Ireland, it was undoubtedly
very well known to the promoters of Frobisher's
voyage.*
Among other matters adduced in proof of a
north-west passage between the Atlantic and
Pacific, Sir Humphrey states, that "there was one
Salvaterra, a gentleman of Victoria in Spain, who
came to Ireland in 1568, out of the West Indies,
and reported that the north-west passage from
Europe to Cathaia was constantly believed in
America; and further said, in presence of Sir
Henry Sidney, Lord Deputy of Ireland, in Sir H.
Gilbert's hearing, that a friar of Mexico, called
Andrew Urdaneta, more than eight years before
* A Discourse by Sir Humphrey Gilbert, &c. Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 19.
1576.
79
MARTIN FROBISHER.
his then coming into Ireland (i.e. before 1560),
told him there, that he came from Mar del Sur into
Germany thro' this N.W. passage, and shewed
Salvaterra (at that time being then with him in
Mexico) a sea card, made by his own experience
and travel in that voyage, wherein was plainly set
down and described this N.W. passage, agreeing in
all points with Ortelius's map.
'And further, this friar told the King of Por-
tugal (as he returned by that country homeward)
that there was (of certainty) such a passage N. W.
from England, and that he meant to publish the
same which done, the king most earnestly desired
him not in any wise to disclose or make the passage
known to any nation. For that (said the king) if
England had knowledge and experience thereof,
it would greatly hinder both the King of Spain
and me. This friar (as Salvaterra reported) was
the greatest discoverer by sea that hath been in
our age; also Salvaterra being persuaded of this
passage by the Friar Urdaneta, and by the com-
mon opinion of the Spaniards inhabiting America,
offered most willingly to accompany me in this
discovery, which of like he would not have done
if he had stood in doubt thereof.""
This Urdaneta was with Magelhanes on his dis-
covery of a passage into the South Seas, round
America; many years after this he took holy
orders, and, residing in New Spain, was applied to
by the King of Spain to pilot Legaspi's squadron
80
1576.
DISCOVERIES OF
to the Phillipines, which he did; and the chart now
or recently in use by the Manilla ships is said to
be that which was originally Urdaneta's.
It may safely be asserted, that no mention of
the discovery attributed by Salvaterra to Urdaneta
is to be met with in any Spanish author. But as
the falsehood of the friar or the reporter could not
at that early period be known in England, and as
nothing in it appeared to be improbable, it served
to spur on a spirit of adventure, by holding out the
hope of certain success from perseverance. Ano-
ther account of the same kind was afterwards
received, which, though utterly false, produced the
same encouraging effects. One Thomas Cowles,
an English seaman, of Badminster, in Somerset-
shire, made oath that, being some six years before
(1573) in Lisbon, he heard one Martin Chacque,
a Portugueze mariner, read out of a book which he,
Chacque, had published six years before that; in
which it was stated, that twelve years before
(1556) he, the author, had set sail out of India for
Portugal, in a small vessel of the burden of about
eighty tons, accompanied by four large ships, from
which he was separated by a westerly gale of
wind; that having sailed among a number of
islands he entered a gulph, which conducted him
into the Atlantic, in the 59° of latitude, near New-
foundland, from whence he proceeded without see-
ing any more land till he fell in with the north-
west part of Ireland, and from thence to Lisbon,
1576.
81
MARTIN FROBISHER.
where he arrived more than a month before the
other four ships with which he set out.
His
Whether Frobisher had collected similar reports
of the passage having actually been performed, or
whether alone from his "knowledge of the sphere
and all other skilles appertaining to the arte of
navigation" his hopes were grounded, it is quite
certain he had persuaded himself that the voyage
was not only feasible but of easy execution.
friends, however, were not so readily persuaded to
enter into his scheme; but, "as it was the only
thing of the world that was left yet undone,
whereby a notable mind might be made famous
and fortunate," he persevered for fifteen years
without being able to acquire the means of setting
forth an expedition, on which his mind had been
so long and so resolutely bent.
At length, in the year 1576, by the countenance
and assistance of Dudley, Earl of Warwick, and a
few friends, he was enabled to fit out two small
barks, the Gabriel of thirty-five and the Michael
of thirty tons, together with a pinnace of ten tons.
With this little squadron he prepared to set out on
his important expedition, and on the 8th of June
passed Greenwich, where the court then was; and
Queen Elizabeth bade them farewell by shaking
her hand at them out of the window. On the
11th of July they came in sight of Friesland,
rising like pinnacles of steeples, and all covered
with snow." This island, whose position has so
66
VOL. I.
G
82
1576.
DISCOVERIES OF
greatly puzzled geographers, could not be the
Frisland of Zeno, but, being in 61° of latitude, was
evidently the southern part of Greenland. The
floating ice obliged him to stand to the south-west
till he got sight of Labrador, along the coast of
which he then stood to the westward, but could
neither reach the land nor get soundings on account
of the ice. Sailing to the northward he met with a
great island of ice, which fell in pieces, making a
noise "as if a great cliffe had fallen into the sea.
After this he entered a strait in lat. 63° 8'. This
strait, to which his name was given from being its
first discoverer, is the same which was afterwards
named Lumley's Inlet; but Frobisher's Strait was,
for a long time, supposed by geographers to have cut
off a portion from Old Greenland, till Mr. Dalrymple
and others shewed the fallacy of such a supposition.
""
Among the openings between the numerous
islands hereabouts, they descried "a number of
small things floating in the sea afarre off, which
the captain supposed to be porposes or seales, or
some kind of strange fish"-but on a nearer
approach they were discovered to be men in small
boats covered with skins. The captain says,
(C
they be like to Tartars, with long black hair,
broad faces and flatte noses, and taunie in colour,
wearing seale skinnes, and so doe the women, not
differing in the fashion, but the women are marked
in the face with blewe streekes downe the cheekes
and round about the eyes." They approached the
ships with some hesitation, and one of the natives
1576.
83
MARTIN FROBISHER.
presently went on board in the ship's boat; and
Frobisher, having given him a bell and a knife, sent
him back in the boat with five of the crew, direct-
ing them to land him on a rock and not to trust
themselves where numbers of his countrymen were
assembled on the shore; but they disobeyed his
orders and were seized by the natives, together
with the boat, and none of them heard of more.
A few days afterwards, on returning to the same
place, the people were observed to be extremely
shy, but Frobisher, having succeeded in drawing
one of them alongside by ringing a bell and hold-
ing it out, as he stretched out his hand to receive
it, "caught the man fast and plucked him with
maine force, boate and all, into his barke out of
the sea. Whereupon, when he found himselfe in
captivity, for very choler and disdaine he bit his
tongue in twaine within his mouth, notwithstand-
ing he died not thereof, but lived untill he came
in England, and then he died of cold which he had
taken at sea. With this "strange infidele, whose
like was never seene, read nor heard of before, and
whose language was neither knowen nor under-
stood of any," Frobisher set sail for England, and
arrived at Harwich on the 2d of October, "highly
commended of all men for his greate and notable
attempt, but speceally famous for the great hope he
brought of the passage to Cathaia."
That hope, however, would probably have died
away but for an accidental circumstance which
G 2
84
1577.
DISCOVERIES of
had been disregarded during the voyage. Some
of the men had brought home flowers, some grass,
and one a piece of stone," much like to a sea cole
in colour," merely for the sake of the place from
whence they came. A piece of this black stone.
being given to one of the adventurers' wives, by
chance she threw it into the fire; and whether from
accident or curiosity, having quenched it while hot
with vinegar," it glistered with a bright mar-
quesset of golde." The noise of this incident was
soon spread abroad, and the stone was assayed by
the "gold finers of London," who reported that
it contained a considerable quantity of gold.* A
new voyage was immediately set on foot for the
following year, in which we are told by Master
George Best, Frobisher's lieutenant, that "the
captaine was specially directed by commission for
the searching more of this gold ore then for the
searching any further discovery of the passage."t
MARTIN FROBISHER-Second Voyage. 1577.
Frobisher was now openly countenanced by
Queen Elizabeth, and on taking leave had the
honour of kissing her Majesty's hand, who dis-
missed him "with gracious countenance and com-
fortable words." He was, besides, furnished with
"one tall ship of her Majesties, named the Ayde,
of nine-score tunnes or thereabouts; and two other
* True Discourse by Master George Best.-Hakluyt, Voyages,
vol. iii. p. 29.
† Ibid.
1577.
85
MARTIN FROBISHER.
little barkes likewise, the one called the Gabriel,
whereof Master Fenton was Captaine: and the
other the Michael, whercof Master Yorke, a gen-
tleman of my Lord Admiralls, was Captaine:"
these two vessels were about thirty tons each.
On the 27th of May, having received the sacrament
and prepared themselves " as good Christians
towards God, and resolute men for all fortunes,
they left Gravesend, and after a long passage
fell in with Friesland, in lat. 60° on the 4th of
July, the mountains covered with snow and the
coast almost inaccessible from the great quantity
of drift ice. It is worthy of remark that Fro-
bisher, being in possession of the account of Fries-
land, by the two Venetians, declares that "for so
much of this land as we have sayled alongst, com-
paring their carde with the coast, we find it very
agreeable;" but no creature was seen "but little
birdes." They observed islands of ice, "some
seventie, some eightie fathome under water," and
more than half a mile in circuit; and the ice being
fresh, Frobisher is led to the conclusion that these
mountains "must be bredde in the sounds, or in
some land neere the pole;" and that the "maine
sea freeseth not, therefore there is no mare glaciale,
as the opinion hitherto hath bene." Four days
were here spent in vain endeavouring to land, after
which they stood for the strait discovered by them
the preceding year. They arrived off the north
foreland, otherwise Hall's island, so called after the
G 3
1
86
1577.
DISCOVERIES OF
man who had picked up the golden ore, and who
was now master of the Gabriel. They proceeded
some distance up the strait, when, on the 18th of
July, the general taking the gold-finers with him,
landed near the spot where the ore had been picked
up, but could not find in the whole island "a peece
so bigge as a walnut." But all the neighbouring
islands are stated to have good store of the ore.
They then landed on Hall's greater island, where
they also found a great quantity of the ore. On
the top of a high hill, about two miles from the
shore, "they made a columne or crosse of stones
heaped up of a good heigth togither in good sort,
and solemnly sounded a trumpet, and saide certaine
prayers kneeling about the ensigne, and honoured
the place by the name of Mount Warwicke."
Returning to their boats, they espied several of
the natives on the top of Mount Warwick waving
a flag, "with cries like the mowing of buls, seem-
ing greatly desirous of conference with us.
" Both
sides being suspicious of each other, two men were
selected one on the part of each to confer together,
and to settle a traffick; and we are told that "one
of the salvages, for lacke of better merchandize, cut
off the tayle of his coate and gave it unto the
generall for a present." On this, which was not a
very civil return, the general and the master sud-
denly laid hold of the two savages. "But the
ground under-foot being slipperie with the snow
on the side of the hill, their hand-fast fayled, and
their prey escaping ranne away and lightly re-
}
1577.
87
MARTIN FROBISHER.
covered their bow and arrows, which they had hid
not farre from them behind the rockes. And
being only two salvages in sight, they so fiercely,
desperately, and with such fury assaulted and pur-
sued our generall and his master, being altogether
unarmed, and not mistrusting their subtiltie, that
they chased them to their boates, and hurt the
generall in the buttocke with an arrow." The
soldiers now began to fire, on which the savages
ran away and the English after them; when one
"Nicholas Conger, a good footman, and uncum-
bred with any furniture, having only a dagger at
his backe, overtooke one of them, and being a
Cornish man and a good wrastler, shewed his com-
panion such a Cornish tricke that he made his sides
ake against the ground for a moneth after; and so
being stayed he was taken alive and brought
away, but the other escaped." In the meantime a
storm having arisen, they proceeded with their prey
to a small island, where keeping good "watch and
warde" they lay there all night upon hard cliffs of
snow and ice, both wet, cold and comfortless, in a
country which yielded no better cheer than rocks
and stones, and a people "more readie to eat them
then to give them wherewithall to eate.”
They now stood over to the southern shore of
Frobisher's Strait, and landed on a small island
with the gold-finers to search for ore; and "here
all the sands and cliffs did so glister and had so
bright a marquesite that it seemed all to be gold,
1
G 4
88
1577.
DISCOVERIES OF
but upon tryall made it prooved no better than
black-lead, and verified the proverbe-all is not
gold that glistereth."
On another small island, which they named
Smith's Island, they found a mine of silver, and
four sorts of ore "to holde gold in good quan-
titie;" and on another island a great dead fish,
twelve feet long, "having a horne of two yardes
long growing out of the snoute or nostrels," which
was brought home and "reserved as a jewell" in
the queen's wardrobe. They continued to proceed
up the strait for about thirty leagues, much ham-
pered with, and frequently in great danger from, the
floating ice. In one of the small islands they found
a tomb, in which were the bones of a dead man,
and several implements belonging to the natives,
the use of which was explained to them by the
captive "salvage"--who taking in his hand one of
their country bridles, "caught one of our dogges
and hampered him handsomely therein, as we doe
our horses; and with a whip in his hand he taught
the dog to drawe in a sled, as we doe horses in a
coach, setting himselfe thereupon like a guide.
They afterwards found that these people "feede
fatte the lesser sort of dogges" to eat as food,
and that the larger sort are used to draw their
sledges.
In endeavouring to seize a party of natives in
Yorke Sound, a skirmish ensued in which five or six
of the savages were unfortunately put to death,
and two women seized, "whereof the one being
و,
1577.
89
MARTIN FROBISHER.
old and ugly, our men thought she had been
a devil or some witch, and therefore let her goe;
the other being young and incumbered with a
sucking child at her backe hiding herself behind
the rocks, was espied by one of our men, who sup-
posing she had bene a man, shot through the haire
of her head, and pierced through the child's arme
whereupon she cried out, and our surgeon meaning
to heale her child's arme, applyed salves thereunto.
But she, not acquainted with such kind of surgery,
plucked those salves away, and by continuale
licking with her owne tongue, not much unlike
our dogs, healed up the childe's arme." It is stated
that they found here sundry articles of the apparel
of the five unfortunate men who had been seized
by the natives the preceding year, which is the
only apology offered for the cruel attack on
these people.
By means of their two captives they at length
brought about an intercourse with the natives;
from whom they understood that the five men
were still living, and engaged to deliver a letter
to them, which letter was couched in the follow-
ing words:-
"In the name of God, in whom we all believe,
who (I trust) hath preserved your bodies and
soules, amongst these infidels, I commend me unto
you. I will be glad to seeke by al means you can
devise for your deliverance, either with force, or
with any commodities within my ships, which I
will not spare for your sakes, or any thing els
90
1577.
DISCOVERIES, &c.
I can doe for you. I have aboord, of theirs, a
man a woman and a child, which I am contented to
deliver for you, but the man which I carried away
from hence the last yeere is dead in England.
Moreover you may declare unto them, that if they
deliver you not I will not leave a man alive in
their countrey. And thus, if one of you can come
to speake with mee, they shall have either the man,
woman or childe in pawne for you. And thus unto
God whom I trust you doe serve, in hast I leave
you, and to him wee will daily pray for you. This
Tuesday morning the seventh of August, 1577."
The men however never appeared, and as the
season was far advanced and the general's com-
mission directed him to search for gold ore, and
to defer the further discovery of the passage till
another time, they set about the lading of the
ships, and in the space of twenty days, with the
help of a few gentlemen and soldiers, got on
board almost two hundred tons of ore. On the
22d August, after making bonefires on the
highest mount on this island, and firing a volley
for a farewell "in honour of the Right Honourable
Lady Anne, Countess of Warwicke, whose name
it beareth," they set sail homewards, and after
a stormy passage they all arrived safe in different
ports of Great Britain, with the loss only of one
man by sickness, and another who was washed
overboard.*
* Hakluyt's Voyages, vol. iii. p. 32.
( 91 )
MARTIN FROBISHER-Third Voyage. 1578.
The Queen and her court were so highly de-
lighted in "finding that the matter of the gold
ore had
appearance and made shew of great riches
and profit, and the hope of the passage to
Cathaia by this last voyage greatly increased,"
that after a minute examination by the commis-
sioners specially appointed, it was determined that
the voyage was highly worthy of being followed
up.
The Queen gave the name of Meta incog-
nita to the newly discovered country, on which it
was resolved to establish a colony. For this
purpose a fleet of fifteen ships were got ready,
and one hundred persons appointed to form the
settlement and remain there the whole year, keep-
ing with them three of the ships; the other twelve
were to bring back cargoes of gold ore. Frobisher
was constituted admiral and general, and, on
taking leave, received from the Queen a gold
chain, and the rest of the captains had the honour
of kissing her Majesty's hand.
The fleet sailed from Harwich on the 31st May,
1578, passed Cape Clear on the 6th June, and on
the 20th of that month discovered west Friesland,
which they now named West England; landed and
took possession thereof; but the natives abandoned
their tents and fled. The fleet then proceeded to
Frobisher's strait, giving to the last cliff in sight
92
1578.
DISCOVERIES OF
of West England, "for a certaine similitude," the
name of Charing Cross. They found the strait
choked up with ice, and the bark Dennis, of
one hundred tons, received such a blow with a
rock of ice, that she sunk instantly in sight of
the whole fleet, but the people were all saved.
Unfortunately however she had on board part of
the house which was intended to be erected for
the winter settlers. A violent storm now came on,
and the whole fleet was dispersed, some being
driven with the ice into the strait, and there shut
up, and others swept away among the drift ice into
the sea.
Their distresses and dangers and suffer-
ings are described in most lamentable terms. And
when, at length, they got together again, they
were so bewildered by the fog, snow and mist, and
so driven about by the tides and currents, the
noise of which was equal "to the waterfall of
London bridge," that a doubt arose among the
masters and pilots of the fleet where they were
In this dilemma two of the ships parted company;
the rest followed Frobisher to the north-west coast
of Greenland, along which he passed to the
northward, thinking, or as the writer of the
voyage says, pretending and "persuading the
fleete always that they were in their right course,
and knowen straights." At length, after many
perils from storms, fogs, and floating ice, the
general and part of the fleet assembled in the
Countess of Warwick's Sound in Frobisher's strait,
1578.
93
MARTIN FROBISHER.
when a council was held on the 1st August, at
which it was determined to send all persons and
things on shore upon Countess of Warwick's island;
and on the 2d August, orders were proclaimed
by sound of trumpet for the guidance of the com-
pany during their abode thereon. It was found
however, on examining the bills of lading, that the
east side and the south side only of the house were
saved, and those not perfect, many pieces having
been destroyed when used as fenders against the
ice. There was also a want of drink and fuel for a
hundred men, the greatest store being in the miss-
ing ships. For these and sundry good and sufficient
reasons, it was determined in council "that no
habitation should be there this yeer."
Captain Best of the Ann Francis, one of the
missing ships, discovered "a great black island,"
where such plenty of black ore was found "as
might reasonably suffice all the gold gluttons of
the world," which island, "for cause of his good
luck," the captain called after his own name,
Best's Blessing. He also ascended a high hill
called Hatton's Headland, where he erected a co-
lumn or cross of stone in token of Christian pos-
session; "here also he found plentee of blacke
ore, and divers pretie stones."
The 30th August, having arrived and all hands
evidently disheartened with the extreme cold and
tempestuous weather, a council was again held,
at which it was determined, for divers good and
substantial reasons, that each captain and gentle-
94
1578.
DISCOVERIES OF
man should look to the lading of his own ship
with ore, and be in readiness to set homeward by
a certain day, which it appears was the following
one or 31st August. After a stormy passage, in
which it is stated that "many of the fleete were
dangerously distressed, and were severed almost all
asunder," they all arrived at various ports of
England, about the 1st of October, with the loss
by death of about forty persons.
**
The Busse of Bridgewater, in her homeward pas-
sage, fell in with a large island to the south-east
of Friesland, in latitude 5710, which had never
before been discovered, and sailed three days along
the coast, the land appearing to be fertile, full of
wood, and a fine champaign country. On this
authority the island was laid down on our charts;
but was never afterwards seen, and certainly does
not exist though a bank has recently been
sounded upon, which has revived the idea of the
Friesland of Zeno and the Busse of Bridgewater
having been swallowed up by an earthquake.
1
It is somewhat remarkable, that a man of Fro-
bisher's sagacity, who in his first voyage soon
discovered that the open and deep sea does not
freeze, but that the ice originates in rivers, bays,
and creeks, and floats about till it clings by the
land, or is forced into narrow and shallow straits,
should have persevered in struggling among straits
and ice, when he knew he had an open sea
* Hakluyt's Voyages, vol. iii. p. 39.
i
1
1578.
95
MARTIN FROBISHER.
between Greenland and the archipelago of islands,
among which is the strait bearing his name; but
his first voyage only was in fact a voyage of dis-
covery; the second and third had for their objects
golden mines and a new settlement, and both
ended in disappointed expectations.
Frobisher's three voyages were evidently con-
sidered as a total failure by the court, both of im-
mediate gain, and of prospective hope as to the
original object of the expedition; and for the next
seven years we hear nothing more of the general,
till, in 1585, we find him commanding the Aid, in
the expedition of Sir Francis Drake to the West
Indies. In 1588 he commanded the Triumph, one
of the three largest ships engaged with the Spanish
Armada, in which he fought with great bravery;
and received the honour of knighthood from the
lord high admiral on board his own ship at sea.
In 1590 he was appointed by the queen to com-
mand a squadron on the coast of Spain, with
orders to co-operate with Sir John Hawkins. In
1594 he was detached with four ships of war to
assist Henry IV. of France against a body of
Leaguers and Spaniards, then in possession of a
part of Britanny, and strongly entrenched in the
neighbourhood of Brest. On the 7th of Novem-
ber, when assaulting the fort of Croy zon, he
received a wound in the hip from a ball, of which
he died shortly after, having brought his little
squadron safely back to Plymouth, where he was
interred. The wound, according to Stowe, was not
96
1577.
DISCOVERIES OF
mortal in itself, but became so through the neglect
or ignorance of his surgeon, who, having extracted
the ball, left the wadding in the wound, which
caused it to fester.
Sir Martin Frobisher was born of humble parents,
in the town of Doncaster, and is supposed to have
betaken himself early to sea. He is represented
as a man of great courage, of much experience,
and correct conduct; but of a hasty temper,
harsh and violent. There is a portrait of him in
the picture gallery of Oxford.*
EDWARD FENTON. 1577.
It would be unjust to pass over the name of
Mr. EDWARD FENTON, a gentleman who greatly
distinguished himself in many gallant and adven-
turous actions. At the recommendation of the
Earl of Warwick, he accompanied Sir Martin
Frobisher as Captain of the Gabriel in 1577; and
in the following year commanded the Judith, one
of the fifteen vessels of which the squadron des-
tined to form the settlement on Meta Incognita
was composed; and in the third expedition he had
the title of Rear-Admiral. Notwithstanding the
three unsuccessful attempts for the discovery of
a north-west passage, Fenton remained firmly
persuaded that such a passage was practicable,
and might be resumed with the strongest proba-
* Biog. Brit.
1577.
97
EDWARD FENTON.
bility of success. His repeated solicitations to be
employed on this enterprize, joined to the power-
ful interest of the Earl of Leicester, one of his
patrons, procured him at length an opportunity of
trying his fortune.*
A voyage was set forth, under the auspices,
and chiefly at the expense, of the Duke of Cum-
berland, the object of which, as would appear from
Fenton's instructions, was of a two-fold nature :
namely, to proceed to the East Indies by one of
the usual routes, and from the Moluccas to endea-
vour to return by the north-east; or in other words,
to discover the north-west passage on the side of
the Pacific, then known by the name of the South
Seas; but the real object was, in Sir William Mon-
son's opinion, to try his fortune in the Indian
seas, as Drake had already done with so much
success. But the king of Spain, having antici-
pated the design, sent a fleet to intercept him
in the strait of Magellan. Fenton on his passage
out discovered this and thought it prudent to
return to England, but not before he had engaged
and sunk the Spanish Vice-Admiral, whom he met
with in a Portugueze port. After this he had the
command of the Mary Rose, and behaved most
gallantly in the attack on the Spanish Armada in
1588. He died at Deptford in 1603, and was
buried in the parish church of that place, in which
·
VOL. I.
* Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 764.
H
98
1580.
DISCOVERIES OF
is a handsome monument, with a chaste inscrip-
tion, erected to his memory by the Earl of Corke,
who married his niece.
*
ARTHUR PET AND CHARLES JACKMAN. 1580.
Although the fruitless voyages of Martin Fro-
bisher had abated the zeal of the court, they did
not in the least damp the ardour of private enter-
prize. The Russia merchants, having made so
considerable a progress in the east by land, now
determined to fit out another expedition by sea, for
the purpose of renewing the attempt to discover
a north-east passage to China. Two barks,
the George and the William, under the command
of ARTHUR PET and CHARLES JACKMAN, were
fitted out for this service. They left Harwich on
the 30th May, reached Wardhuys the 23d June,
crossed the bay of St. Nicholas, passed much ice,
and on the 16th July made the body of the island,
as they supposed, of Nova Zembla. On the 17th,
after passing through much ice and shoal water,
they reached the bay of Petchora, and the following
day came to Waigatz, where they found great store
of wood and water. To the eastward of Waigatz
they were so hampered with the ice that they
resolved to return, a task which with difficulty
they effected, the sea being so thickly covered
*Fuller's Worthies. Sir W. Monson's Naval Tracts. Camden.
1580.
99
PET AND JACKMAN.
with ice, that they were enclosed in it for sixteen
or eighteen days, and the air was constantly loaded
with thick fog. On the 17th August they re-
passed the strait of Waigatz, among much ice,
snow, and fog, and on the 22d the ships parted
company. On the 27th the George was opposite
Kegor, on the 31st doubled the North Cape,
and on the 26th October they reached Ratcliffe,
"and praised God for their safe returne."
The William was less fortunate. She arrived at
a port in Norway to the southward of Drontheim,
in October, and wintered there. In the February
following she departed from thence, in company
with a ship belonging to the king of Denmark,
towards Iceland, and from that time was never
more heard of.
From the meagre narrative of this voyage it is
sufficiently evident, that Pet and Jackman were but
indifferent navigators, and that they never trusted
themselves from the shore and out of shallow
water, whenever the ice would suffer them to
approach it; a situation of all others where they
might have made themselves certain of being
hampered with ice, though only in the 68th and
69th degrees of latitude. From this time the
English merchants, trading to Russia, were satis-
fied with sending their ships to the bay of St.
Nicholas, or Archangel, and of committing their
enterprizes of eastern discoveries to journeys by
land.
H 2
( 100 )
1583.
SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT. 1583.
The successful efforts of the Russia company by
land gave new vigour to a spirit for foreign traffic
and discoveries, and turned men's minds once more
to the north-westward. The indefatigable exer-
tions of Sir HUMPHREY GILBERT, his great talents.
and powerful interest, had procured for him letters.
patent, dated in 1578, authorising him to undertake
western discoveries, and to possess lands unsettled
by Christian princes or their subjects; and the same
year he is said to have made a voyage to New-
foundland, of which, however, no detailed account
appears to have been published. The grant in
the patent was made perpetual, but at the same
time declared void, in case no possession was
actually taken within the space of six years. Sir
Humphrey, therefore, the year before its expiration,
prepared for a new expedition and, in the very
same year, being 1583, Queen Elizabeth granted
another patent to his younger brother, Adrian
Gilbert, of Sandridge, in the county of Devon,
and his associates, conferring on them the privilege
of making discoveries of a passage to China and
the Moluccas, by the north-westward, north-east-
ward or northward; to be incorporated by the
name of "The Colleagues of the Fellowship for
the Discoverie of the north-west Passage."
Sir Humphrey in the meantime set out to take
1583.
101
SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT.
possession of the northern parts of America and
Newfoundland. The fleet consisted of five ships
of different burdens, from two hundred to ten tons,
in which were embarked about two hundred and
sixty men, including shipwrights, masons, smiths
and carpenters, besides "minerall men and refi-
ners;" and, "for the solace of our people," says
Mr. Haies," and allurement of the savages, we
were provided of musicke in good varietie; not
omitting the least toyes, as morris dancers, hobby
horsses, and maylike conceits, to delight the savage
people, whom we intended to winne by all faire
meanes possible."* This little fleet left Cawsand
Bay on the 11th of June. In lat. 60° N. they found
themselves opposed by mountains of ice driving
about on the sea, having passed which, they fell
in with the land on the 30th of July. It is noticed
that, at this early period, "the Portugals and
French chiefly have a notable trade of fishing on
the Newfoundland banke, where there are some-
times more than a hundred sail of ships."
On entering the harbour of St. John's, the
gene-
ral and his people were entertained with great pro-
fusion by the English merchants, who carried them
to a place called the garden-but the writer of
the voyage observes, that nothing appeared but
"nature itselfe without art;" plenty of roses and
raspberries were found growing wild in every
*Hayes's Narrative of the Voyage.-Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 154.
H 3
102
1583.
DISCOVERIES OF
place. Here, in presence of the English traders and
the foreigners assembled, possession was taken, in
the queen's name, of the harbour and two hundred
leagues every way; and three laws were immedi-
ately made and promulgated on the spot: 1. For
the public exercise of religion according to the
church of England; 2. For maintaining her majes-
ty's right and possession, against which any party
offending, to be adjudged and executed as in case
of high treason; and 3. For preventing the utter-
ance of words sounding to the dishonour of her
majesty, the party offending to lose his ears, and
his ship and goods to be confiscated. Several par-
cels of land were granted out; but, it
"the
generall was most curious in the search of metals,
commanding the minerall man and refiner espe-
cially to be diligent." This man was a Saxon,
"honest and religious, named Daniel;" and he
brought to Sir Humphrey what he called silver ore,
but the general would not have it tried or spoken
of till they got to sea," as the Portugals, Biscains
and Frenchmen were not farre off."
seems,
Sir Humphrey now embarked "in his small
frigate, the Squirrel," which, in fact, was a miser-
able bark of ten tons, and taking with him two
other ships, the Delight, commanded by Captain
Brown, and the Golden Hinde, by Captain Hayes,
proceeded on discovery to the southward; but the
Delight, with all the valuables on board, was
wrecked among the flats and sands near Sable
1583.
103
SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT.
Island, when only twelve men escaped in a boat
out of more than a hundred souls, who all, except
these, perished; among whom was Stephanus Par-
menius, of Buda, a learned Hungarian, who had
embarked on this enterprize for the purpose of
recording, "in the latine tongue, the gests and
things worthy of remembrance;" and also "the
Saxon refiner and discoverer of inestimable riches."
It was said that the loss of the miner and the ore
preyed on Sir Humphrey Gilbert's mind, as on the
strength of his mine he had reckoned on borrowing
10,000l. from the queen for his next voyage. *
Mr. Edward Haies, the narrator, observes, that
"like the swanne that singeth before her death,
they in the admirall (or Delight) continued in
sounding of trumpets with drummes and fifes;
also winding the cornets and haughtboyes; and in
the end of their jolitie left with the battell and
ringing of doleful knels."
Sir Humphrey, however, escaped in his little
bark, and, with the Golden Hinde, determined on
proceeding to England. His little frigate, as she
is called, is described as being wholly unfit to
proceed on such a voyage; and when he was
entreated not to venture in her, but take his pas-
sage in the Golden Hinde, this brave man replied,
"I will not forsake my little company going
homeward, with whom I have passed so many
Hayes's Account of the Voyage in Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 155.
H 4
104
1583.
DISCOVERIES OF
stormes and perils." On the 9th September, hav-
ing passed the Azores, Sir Humphrey's frigate was
observed to be nearly overwhelmed by a great sea;
but she recovered the stroke of the waves, and
immediately afterwards the general was observed
by those in the Hinde sitting abaft, with a book in
his hand, calling out " Courage, my lads! we are
as near to heaven by sea as by land!" The same
night this little bark and all within her were
swallowed up by the sea, and no more heard of.
Thus perished this brave and adventurous gen-
tleman. Mr. Hayes says, that he was chiefly
induced to continue in the Squirrel, and adhere
to the fatal resolution of not quitting her, in con-
sequence of a malicious report that was spread
abroad, and had reached his ears, that he was
afraid of the sea. But it is not probable that a
man of such undaunted courage and vigour of
intellect should have been swayed by any such
consideration; though, in this chivalrous age, he
might perhaps have been influenced by the motto
which he bore on his arms-Mutare vel timére
sperno.
*
Sir Humphrey Gilbert was descended from an
ancient and honourable family in Devonshire,
whose mother married a second time to Walter
Raleigh, Esq., from which marriage was born the
* Prince, in his Worthies of Devon, makes the motto Mallem
mori quam mutare.
1
1583.
105
SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT.
celebrated Sir Walter Raleigh, who was thus half
brother to Sir Humphrey. He was educated at
Eton, from whence he was sent to Oxford, where
he was distinguished for his talents in an age fruit-
ful in great men.
He served in Ireland with
much credit, and was made President of Munster,
in which situation he conducted himself with
firmness and address. He may truly be styled
"the father of western plantation;" and Prince
bestows on him the following eulogium:-" He
was an excellent hydrographer, and no less skil-
ful mathematician; of an high and daring spirit,
though not equally favoured of fortune; yet the
large volume of his virtues may be read in his
noble enterprizes; the great design whereof was
to discover the remote countries of America, and
to bring off those salvages from their diabolical
superstitions, to the embracing the gospel of our
Lord and Saviour Christ; for which, his zeal de-
serves an eternal remembrance."*
JOHN DAVIS-First Voyage. 1585.
The merchants of London and of the west
country being satisfied " of the likelyhood of the
discoverie of the north-west passage," and that
the former adventurers had been diverted from
• Prince's Worthies of Devon, p. 417.
106
1585.
DISCOVERIES OF
their main purpose by objects foreign to the
original design, resolved on a new expedition,
whose sole motive should be that of discovery.
The superintendance of the outfit was entrusted
to Mr. William Sanderson, Merchant of London;
and Mr. JOHN DAVIS, of Sandridge, in Devonshire,
by the recommendation, no doubt, of his neigh-
bour, Mr. Adrian Gilbert, received the appointment
of Captain and chief pilot of this new enterprize.
Two small barks, one of 50 tons, called the Sun-
shine, and the other of 35 tons, named the Moon-
shine, were put under his orders. In the first were
twenty-three persons, of whom four were musi-
cians; and in the latter nineteen. They left Dart-
mouth on the 7th June, 1585, and on the 19th
July were among the ice on the western side of
Greenland, where they heard "a mighty great
roaring of the sea," which, on a closer examination
in the boats, they found to proceed from the "rowl-
ing together of islands of ice." The next day, as
they proceeded to the northward, the fog cleared
away, and they perceived a rocky and mountainous
land, in form of a sugar loaf, appearing as if above
the clouds. The top was covered with snow, and
the shore beset with ice a full league into the sea;
and the whole surrounding aspect presented so
"true a paterne of desolation," that Davis gave to
it the name of "the Land of Desolation." Find-
ing it impossible to reach the shore near this spot
on account of the ice, Davis determined to return
1585.
107
JOHN DAVIS.
to the southward. In standing along the coast he
observed drift-wood floating about daily, and the
Moonshine picked up a tree "sixty feet long and
fourteene handsfuls about, having the roote upon
it." The air was moderate, like April weather in
England, and it was cold only when the wind blew
from the land or ice, but when it came over the
open sea "it was very hote."
From this coast they stood off again to the
north-westward for four days, when they saw land
in latitude 64° 15', the weather still being temperate
and the sea free from ice. It was an archipelago
of islands, " among which were many faire sounds
and good roads for shipping;" to that in which they
anchored Davis gave the name of Gilbert's sound.
A multitude of natives approached in their canoes,
on which the musicians began to play and the
sailors to dance and make tokens of friendship.
The simple and harmless natives soon understood
their meaning, and were so delighted with their
treatment and the music that they flocked round
them in vast numbers, not less than thirty-seven of
their boats being at one time along side their small
barks. The sailors shook hands with them and
won so far on their good will that they obtained
from the "salvages" whatever they wished-canoes,
clothing, bows, spears, and in short whatever they
asked for. "They are very tractable people," says
the narrator, “void of craft or double dealing, and
easie to be brought to any civilitie or good order;
108
1585.
DISCOVERIES OF
but we judge them to be idolaters, and to worship
the sunne.
""
The drift-wood was brought to these islands in
great abundance. The cliffs are described to be
of "such oare as M. Frobisher brought from Meta
incognita," and they had "divers shewes of Study
or Muscovy glasse, shining not altogether unlike
christall." They found a red fruit growing on the
rocks, which was "sweet, full of red juice, and
the ripe ones like corinths."
On the 1st August, our adventurers stood farther
to the north-west, and on the 6th, discovered land
in 66° 40′; the sea altogether free from ice. Here
they anchored their barks, " in a very faire rode
under a brave mount," to which they gave the name
of Mount Raleigh, "the cliffs whereof were as
orient as gold." The foreland towards the north
they called Dier's Cape, that towards the south Cape
Walsingham; and to the great bay between them
they gave the name of Exeter sound, and to their
anchorage Totness Road. On their first landing
they met with "four white beares of a monstrous
bignesse," one of which they killed.
On the 8th August, they returned to the south-
ward, and on the 11th, came to the next southerly
cape of the land they had coasted, which they
named the Cape of God's Mercy, "as being the
place of our first entrance for the discovery."
Keeping this land to the northward of them, they
sailed to the westward, and had a fine open passage,
1586.
109
JOHN DAVIS.
from twenty to thirty leagues in width, entirely
free from ice," and the water of the very colour,
nature, and quality, of the main ocean, which gave
us the greater hope of our passage." Having
proceeded sixty leagues, a cluster of islands was
observed in the midst of the passage. Here, the
weather becoming thick and foggy, and the wind
from the south-east, and no appearance of amend-
ment, they remained six days, at the end of
which they determined on returning homewards,
and accordingly set sail on the 2d August, and
arrived safe in Dartmouth on the 30th Sep-
tember.
JOHN DAVIS-Second Voyage. 1586.
The important discovery of the free and open
passage to the westward, between Frobisher's
archipelago and the land now called Cumberland's
island, the great number of whales, seals, deer
skins, and other articles of peltry in possession of
the natives, which were freely offered by them to
the crews of the ships, excited such lively hopes
at home for the extension both of traffick and dis-
covery, that the merchants of Exeter, and other
parts of the west of England, contributed a large
trading vessel of one hundred and twenty tons,
called the Mermaid, to accompany the little squa-
dron of Davis on a second voyage, which now
110
1586.
DISCOVERIES OF
consisted of the Sunshine, the Moonshine, and a
pinnace of ten tons, named the North Star.
On the 7th May they left Dartmouth, and on
the 15th June made the land about Cape Farewell;
coasted the west side of Greenland, and from
hence they had much intercourse with the natives,
who came off to their ships sometimes in an " hun-
dred canoes at a time, sometimes fourtie, fiftie,
more and less as occasion served, bringing with
them seale skinnes, stagge skinnes, white hares,
seale fish, samon peale, smal cod, dry caplin, with
other fish, and birds such as the country did
yield."
The civility of the people induced the adven-
turers to examine the rivers and creeks which ran
up into the main land. They found the surface
much the same as that of the moory and waste
grounds of England. The natives are described as
“of good stature, and in body proportioned, with
small slender hands and feet, with broad visages
and small eyes, wide mouths, the most part un-
bearded, great lips, and close toothed." They are
represented as being idolaters, having great store
of images, which they wear about them and in
their boats. They are said to be witches, and to
practise many kinds of enchantments; they are
strong and nimble, fond of leaping and wrestling,
in which they beat the best of the crew, who were
west-country wrestlers. They discovered, how-
ever, in a little time that these Greenlanders were
1
1586.
111
JOHN DAVIS.
both very thievish and very mischievous, cutting
their cables and stealing every thing they could lay
their hands on. They are said to live mostly on
fish, which they eat raw; drink salt water and
eat grass and ice as luxuries.
On the 17th July, our navigators were all
alarmed at the appearance of "a most mighty
and strange quantity of yce in one intire masse,
so bigge as that we knew not the limits thereof."
Its size and shape and height are stated by the
writer of the voyage to be so "incredible to be
reported in trueth," that he declines speaking
more of it, least he should not be believed. They
coasted this ice till the 30th July, which occa-
sioned such extreme cold that all their shrouds,
ropes and sails were frozen, and the air was loaded
with a thick fog. The men grew sick and feeble,
and wished to return, and advised their captain,
through his overboldness, not to leave their
widows and fatherless children to give him bitter
curses. He therefore thought of ordering the
Mermaid to remain where she was, in readiness to
return homewards, while with the Moonshine he
should proceed round the ice. He discovered land
in 66° 33', long. 70° from the meridian of London,
"voyd of trouble without snow or ice." This
land turned out to be a group of islands. The
weather was found to be very hot; and they
were much troubled with a fly "which is called
muskyto, for they did sting grievously." After
112
1586.
DISCOVERIES OF
leaving the Mermaid they sailed west fifty leagues,
and discovered land in lat. 66° 19′. Turning to the
south they fell in with land north-west from them,
being a fair promontory in lat. 65°, having no land
on the south; "here," says Davis, "wee had great
hope of a thorough passage." From hence they
continued to the southward among many islands,
and afterwards along the coast from the lat. 67 to 57
degrees. On the 28th August, they fell in with
a fair harbour in lat. 56° and sailed ten leagues
into the same, with fine woods on both sides. On
the 4th September being in lat. 54°, Davis says,
"he had a perfect hope of the passage, finding
a mightie great sea passing between two lands
west." On this part of the coast of Labrador two
of their men were slain by the savages. The
weather now became most stormy and tempestuous,
and on the 11th September they weighed anchor
and arrived in England in the beginning of Oc-
tober. It should be remarked that, in all this track,
Davis was entirely alone in his little bark, the Moon-
shine; he having, on his arrival off Cape Farewell,
ordered the Sunshine and the North Star to seek
a passage northward between Greenland and Ice-
land as far as lat. 80°, if not interrupted by land.
On the 12th June the two latter vessels put into
Iceland and remained there till the 16th, and
steering north-west came, on the 3d July, between
two firm islands of ice. This made them turn about,
and, coasting Greenland within three leagues off
1587.
113
JOHN DAVIS.
the land and along a continued field of ice, they
came on the 17th to the land of Desolation, crossed
over to Gilbert's Sound, the appointed rendezvous,
where they remained till the 31st, when hearing
nothing of their consort, they departed for Eng-
land, and the Sunshine arrived at Radcliffe on the
6th October: she had parted from the North Star in
a great storm on the 3d September, the latter of
which was never heard of more.
JOHN DAVIS-Third Voyage. 1587.
The second voyage of DAVIS had not been at-
tended with any very encouraging circumstances
to the adventurers; but this intrepid navigator writes
to his patron Mr. W. Sanderson, on his arrival, in
these terms: "I have now experience of much of
the north-west part of the world, and have brought
the passage to that likelihood, as that I am assured
it must bee in one of foure places, or els not at
all." A third voyage was therefore determined on,
and the Elizabeth of Dartmouth, the Sunshine of
London, and the clincher Helena of London were
appointed for this expedition. They sailed from
Dartmouth on the 19th May, and on the 14th
June descried the land, consisting of very high
mountains covered with snow. It was composed
of islands lying in lat. 64°.
On the 24th they had reached the lat. of 67°
VOL. I.
I
114
1587.
DISCOVERIES OF
40′ and saw great store of whales. On the 30th
they had clear weather and found by observation
that they were in 72° 12′, and that the variation of
the compass was 28° W. The land along which
they had been running, and which was the west
coast of Greenland, they named the London coast.
At this high latitude, finding the sea all open to
the westward and to the northward, and the wind
shifting to the northward, they left that part of the
shore, which they called Hope Sanderson and,
shaping their course west, ran forty leagues in that
direction without meeting with any land. On the
2d July, however, they fell in with a "mightie bank
of ice" to the westward, among which they were
hampered for eleven or twelve days. They then
determined to get near the shore and wait five or
six days "for the dissolving of the ice, hoping
that the sea continually beating it, and the sunne
with the extreme force of heat which it had
always shining upon it, would make a quicke
dispatch, that we might have a further search
upon the westerne shore;" but they found the
water too deep to come to an anchor, and either
from "some fault in the barke or the set of some
current," they were driven six points out of their
course, and on the 19th were abreast of Mount
Raleigh from hence they stood sixty leagues up
the strait discovered in the first voyage, (and which
is now called Cumberland Strait,) and anchored
among the islands at the bottom of the gulph, to
1587.
115
JOHN DAVIS.
which they gave the name of the Earl of Cum-
berland's Isles. The variation of the compass was
30°. The air was extremely hot. They stood
out from these islands to the south-east and
passed an inlet between 63° and 62° of latitude,
which they named Lumley's Inlet, and which is
the strait discovered by Frobisher, and bearing
his name. Passing a headland, which they called
Warwick's Foreland, and crossing a great gulf, they
fell in on the 1st August with the southernmost
cape of the gulf, to which they gave the name of
Cape Chidley, in 61° 10' lat. The strait therefore
which bears the name of Hudson on all the charts
was in fact discovered by Davis, but that in which
he sailed to the highest point of northern lati-
tude was very properly stamped with his name.
On Lord Darcie's island they saw five deer, which
took immediately to the sea on their landing; one
of them is stated to be " as bigge as a good prety
cow, and one very fat, their feet as bigge as oxe
feet." From hence they shaped their course for
England, where they arrived on the 15th Septem-
ber, 1587.
Mr. Davis, on his arrival at Dartmouth, writes thus
to Mr. Sanderson:-"I have bene in 73°, finding
the see all open, and forty leagues betweene land and
land. The passage is most probable, the execution
easie, as at my coming you shall fully knowe."*
* Hakluyt's Voyages and Navigations.
I 2
116
1587.
DISCOVERIES OF
It would appear, however, that Davis was
unable to prevail on the merchant adventurers to
continue what might hitherto be named fruitless
expeditions; but that his zeal for discovery was
unabated appears from a little treatise written and
published by him eight years after his return from
his third voyage.* In this work, addressed to the
"lordes of her maiesties most honorable privie
consayle," besides many ingenious arguments for
the existence of a north-west passage, and the
great advantages which England would derive
from the discovery thereof, there is the following
brief and comprehensive narrative of his own three
voyages.
"In my first voyage not experienced of the
nature of those clymattes, and having no direction
either by Chart, Globe or other certayne relation
in what altitude that passage was to bee searched.
I shaped a Northerly course and so sought the
same towards the South, and in that my Northerly
course I fell upon the shore which in ancient time
was called Groynland fiue hundred leagues distant
from the durseys West Nor West Northerly, the
land being very high and full of mightie moun-
taines all couered with snow no viewe of wood
grasse or earth to be seene, and the shore two
* The Worlde's Hydrographicall Discription, 1595.
A very
rare and curious little book; of which perhaps not three copies
are in existence.
1587.
117
JOHN DAVIS.
leages of into the sea so full of yse as that no
shipping cold by any meanes come neere the same.
The lothsome vewe of the shore, and irksome
noyse of the yse was such as that it bred strange
conceipts among us, so that we supposed the place
to be wast and voyd of any sencible or vegitable
creatures, wherupon I called the same Desolation;
so coasting this shore towardes the South in the
latitude of sixtie degrees, I found it to trend
towardes the west, I still followed the leading
thereof in the same height, and after fiftie or sixtie
leages, it fayled and lay directly north, which I
still followed, and in thirtie leages sayling upon
the West side of this coast by me named Desola-
tion, we were past all the yse and found many
greene and plesant Ills bordering upon the shore,
but the mountains of the maine were still covered
with great quantities of snowe, I brought my
shippe among those ylls and there mored to refreshe
our selves in our wearie travell, in the latitude of
sixtie foure degrees or there about. The people of
the country having espyed our shipps came down
unto us in their canoes, holding up their right
hand to the Sunne and crying Yliaout, would
stricke their brestes, we doing the like the people
came aborde our shippes, men of good stature, un-
bearded, small eyed and of tractable conditions by
whom as signes would permit, we understoode
that towardes the North and West there was, a
great sea, and using the people with kindnesse in
1
i 3
118
1587.
DISCOVERIES OF
geuing them nayles and knifes which of all things
they most desired, we departed, and finding the sea
free from yse supposing our selves to be past all
daunger we shaped our course West Nor West
thinking thereby to passe for China, but in the
latitude of sixtie sixe degrees, wee fell with an
other shore, and there founde an other passage of
20. leages broade directly West into the same,
which we supposed to bee our hoped strayght, we
intered into the same thirty or fortie leages, finding
it neither to wyden nor straighten, then consider-
ing that the yeere was spent for this was in the
fyne of August, and not knowing the length of
this straight and dangers thereof, we tooke it our
best course to retourne with notice of our good
successe for this small time of search. And so
retourning in a sharpe fret of Westerly windes the
29. of September we arived at Dartmouth. And
acquainting master Secretory with the rest of the
honorable and worshipfull adventurers of all our
procedinges. I was appointed againe the seconde
yeere to search the bottome of this straight,
because by all likelihood it was the place and pas-
sage by us laboured for. In this second attempt
the merchants of Exeter, and other places of the
West became adventurers in the action, so that
being sufficiently furnished for sixe monthes, and
having direction to search this straighte, untill we
found the same to fall into an other sea upon the
West side of this part of America, we should
1587.
119
JOHN DAVIS.
agayne retourne for then it was not to be doubted,
but shiping with trade might safely bee conueied to
China and the parts of Asia. We departed from
Dartmouth, and ariving unto the south part of the
cost of Desolation costed the same upon his west
shore to the lat. of 66. degres, and there ancored
among the ylls bordering upon the same, where
wee refreshed our selues, the people of this place
came likewise vnto vs, by whome I vnderstood
through their signes that towardes the North the
Sea was large. At this place the chiefe shipe
wherupon I trusted, called the Mermayd of Dart-
mouth, found many occasions of discontentment,
and being unwilling to proceede she there forsooke
me.
Then considering howe I had giuen my fayth
and most constant promise to my worshipfull good
friend master William Sanderson, who of all men
was the greatest aduenturer in that action, and
tooke such care for the perfourmance thereof that
hee hath to my knowledge at one time disbursed
as much money as any fiue others whatsoeuer out
of his owne purse, when some of the company
haue bin slacke in giuing in their aduenture. And
also knowing that I should lose the fauour of
master Secretory, if I should shrinke from his
direction, in one small barke of thirty tonnes,
whereof master Sanderson was owner, alone with-
out farther comfort or company I proceeded on
my voyage, and ariuing unto this straights fol-
lowed the same eightie leages vntill I came among
I 4
120
1587.
DISCOVERIES OF
many ylandes, where the water did eb and flowe
sixe fadome vpright, aud where there had beene
great trade of people to make trayne. But by
such thinges as there we found wee knewe that
they were not Xtians of Europe that vsed that
trade, in fine by seaching with our boate, wee
founde small hope to passe any farther that way,
and therefore retourning againe recouered the sea
and so coasted the shore towardes the South, and
in so doing (for it was to late to search towardes
the North) wee founde an other great inlett neere
fortie leages broade where the water entred in with
violent swiftnes, this we likewise thought might be
a passage, for no doubt but the North partes of
America are all ylands, by ought that I could
perceive therein, but because I was alone in a
small barke of thirtie tonnes, and the yeere spent I
entered not into the same for it was now the
séuenth of September, but coasting the shore
towardes the South we saw an incredible number
of birdes, hauing diuers fishermen aborde our
barke they all concluded that there was a great
scull of fish, wee beeing vnprouided of fishing
furniture, with a long spike nayle mayde a hoke,
and fastening the same to one of our sounding
lynes, before the bayte was changed wee tooke
more then fortie great cods, the fishe swimming so
aboundantly thicke about our barke as is incredible
to be reported of, which with a small portion of
salte that we had, wee preserued some thirtie
✔
:
Į
1587.
121
JOHN DAVIS.
couple, or there aboutes, and so returned for Eng-
land. And hauing reported to master Secretory
the whole successe of this attempt, hee commanded
mee to present unto the most honorable Lorde high
thresurer of England some parte of that fish, which
when his Lordship saw and hearde at large the
relation of this seconde attempt, I received fauor-
able countenance from his honour, aduising mee to
prosecute the action, of which his Lordship con-
ceiued a very good opinion. The next yeere
although diuers of the aduenturers fel from the
action, as al the western merchantes and most of
those in London yet some of the aduenturers both
honorable and worshipfull continued their willing
fauour and charge, so that by this meanes the next
yeere 2. shippes were appointed for the fishing and
one pynace for the discouery.
66
Departing from Dartmouth through Gods mer-
ciful fauour I ariued to the place of fishing and
there according to my direction I left the 2. shipps
to follow that busines, taking their faithful promise
not to depart vntill my returne vnto them, which
shoulde bee in the fine of August, and so in the
barke I proceeded for the discouery but after my
departure in sixteene dayes the shippes had finished
their voyage, and so presently departed for Eng-
land, without regard of their promise, my selfe not
distrusting any such hard measure proceeded in the
discouerie and followed my course in the free and
open sea betweene North and Nor west to the lati-
122
1587.
DISCOVERIES OF
tude of sixtie seuen degrees and there I might see
America,* West from me, and Desolation East,
then when I saw the land of both sides, I began to
distrust that it would prooue but a gulfe, notwith-
standing desirous to knowe the full certaintye I
proceeded, and in sixtie eight degrees the
passage
enlarged so that I could not see the westerne
shore, thus I continued to the latitude of seuentie
fiue degrees, in a great sea, free from yse coasting
the westerne shore of Desolation, the people came
continually rowing out vnto me in their Canoas
twenty, forty, and one hundred at a time, and
would giue me fishe dried, Samon, Samon peale,
cod, Caplin, Lumpe, stone base, and such like,
besides diuers kindes of birdes, as Partrig, Fesant,
Gulls, sea birdes, and other kindes of fleshe, I
still laboured by signes to knowe from them what
they knew of any sea towards the North, they still
made signes of a great sea as we vnderstood them,
then I departed from that coast thinking to dis-
couer the North parts of America, and after I had
sayled towardes the west neere fortie leages I fell
upon a great bancke of yse, the wind being North
and blewe much, I was constrained to coast the
same towardes the South, not seeing any shore
West from me, neither was there any yse towards
the North, but a great sea, free, large, very salt
*This land must have been the James's Island of some of our
charts, the existence of which however has been considered
doubtful.
1587.
123
JOHN DAVIS.
and blue and of an unsearcheable depth. So coast-
ing towardes the South I came to the place wher
I left the shippes to fishe, but found them not.
Then being forsaken and left in this distresse
referring my selfe to the mercifull prouidence of
God, shaped my course for England and vnhoped
for of any God alone releuing me I ariued at Dart-
mouth, by this last discouerie it seemed most
manifest that the passage was free and without
impediment towards the North, but by reason of
the spanish fleete and unfortunate time of master
Secretoryes death the voyage was omitted and
neuer sithens attempted. The cause why I use
this particular relation of all my procedinges for
this discouery, is to stay this obiection, why hath
not Dauis discouered this passage being thrise
that wayes imploied? how far I proceeded and in
what fourme this discouery lyeth, doth appeare
upon the Globe which master Sanderson to his
verye great charge hath published whose labouring
indeuour for the good of his countrie, deserueth
great fauour and commendations. Made by master
Emery Mullineux a man wel qualited of a good
iudgement and verye expert in many excellent
practises, in my selfe being the onely meane with
master Sanderson to imploy master Mulineux
therein, whereby he is nowe growne to a most
exquisite perfection.'
""
A pair of Mollineux's globes are still in the library of the
Middle Temple. Dalrymple says "the date of the celestial globe
124
1587.
DISCOVERIES OF
Of the life and parentage of this intrepid navi-
gator very little has been left on record for the
benefit of posterity. He has not even found a
place in our biographical dictionaries, though an
obscure American dissenting clergyman of his
name has been thought deserving to be honoured
with a niche in this temple of fame.* In the little
treatise above-mentioned he calls himself "J. Davis,
of Sandrudg, by Dartmouth, Gentleman ;" and in
vindication of England's knowledge in "horizon-
tall, paradoxall and great circle sayling," he offers
himself as a proof from his "briefe treatis of
navigation naming it the Seamans Secreats." He
also wrote "a rutter, or brief direction for sailing
into the East Indies." Sir W. Monson, who was
no friend to the discovery of a north-west passage,
admits that both Frobisher and Davis did offer him
some very plausible reasons in proof of the exist
ence of such a passage; he throws out a hint at
the same time that a more probable attempt might
be made by sailing due north across the pole, which
if successful, he says, would reduce the passage
between England and China to fifteen hundred
still continues, 1592; but the date of the terrestrial has been
visibly altered to 1603 with a pen.”—Mem. of a Map of the Lands
around the North Pole, 1789. It is to be hoped that no other
"alterations" have been made, as the discoveries of Davis were
marked upon the terrestrial globe under his immediate inspec-
tion.
*See Gen. Biog. Dict.-Davies.
+ Prince's Worthies of Devon, vol. i. p. 286.
1
1587.
125
JOHN DAVIS.
leagues.* Davis, after his northern discoveries,
made several voyages to the East Indies, in the
service of the Dutch, some of which have been
published,† and prove him to have been a man of
nice observation, great sagacity and of sound good
sense. He was the first pilot, says Prince, “that
conducted the Zealander to the East Indies; they
departed from Middleburgh in March, 1598, and in
June, 1599, came to Sumatra; where he and some
two or three Englishmen more had bad measure
shewed them by the Zealanders." "This great
navigator,” he adds, “made no less than five voy-
ages to the East Indies, and returned home safe
again; an instance of a wonderful providence;
and an argument that the very same Lord, who is
the God of the earth, is the God of the seas."§ No
further account is known of this daring navigator
except that he was married to Faith, daughter of
Sir John Fulford, of Fulford, in Kent, Knt. by
Dorothy his wife, daughter of John Lord Bour-
chier, Earl of Bath.|| Of the place of his death
and interment, and of his descendants, posterity
must remain in ignorance.
MALDONADO.
1588.
The name of MALDONADO is well known in the
* Monson's Naval Tracts.
+ Two of them by Purchas.
‡ Prince's Worthies of Devon, p. 286.
§ Ibid.
|| Ibid.
126
1588.
DISCOVERIES OF
annals of Spanish literature, and was probably
selected on this account to cover the gross impos-
ture of ascribing to him a fictitious voyage, in
which he is supposed to have effected a passage by
the north-west from the Atlantic to the Pacific,
and back again the following year. Under the
article "Laurent Ferrer Maldonado," in the Biblio-
theca Hispana of Nicolas Antonio, we are told that
he was well skilled in nautical matters and in
geography; that he published a book entitled
Imagen del Mundo, &c.* and that he (Antonio) had
himself seen in the hands of Mascarenas, bishop
of Segovia, the manuscript relation of a voyage
purporting to be an account of the discovery of
the strait of Anian, made by the author in the
year
1588.† Antonio de Leon Pinelo also bears testi-
mony to the talents of Maldonado as a navigator,
and says, that he presented to the council of the
Indies (of which Pinelo was a member) two plans,
one of which related to a method of rendering the
magnetic needle not subject to variation, and the
other, to the finding of the longitude at sea. The
Spaniards, in fact, not only acknowledge Maldo-
nado as a navigator and a man of genius, but would
appear not wholly to discredit a forgery, which,
* Imagen del Mundo sobre la Esfera, Cosmographia, &c. comp.
apud Joh. Garsiam, 1626.
+ Relacion del Descubrimiento del Estrecho de Anian hecho por et
autor, &c.-Bibl. Hisp. tom. ii. p. 2.
Epitome de la Bibl. Orient. &c. Madrid, 1629.
1588.
127
MALDONADO.
though not so easily detected at the time it was
written, ought not for the last fifty years to have
imposed on any one in the least acquainted with
the subject of it; and might, indeed, have been
dectected at the time the voyage was supposed to
be made, by an attentive examination. The Spa-
niards, however, have afforded some countenance
to the authority of this pretended voyage, even so
recently as the year 1789; for when the corvettes,
la Discubierta and l'Atravida, were dispatched
under the orders of Malaspina, to examine the
passages and inlets which might be observed to
break the continuity of the line of coast of north-
west America, between the degrees of 53 and 60
of north latitude, one object of this expedition
was "to discover the strait by which Laurent
Ferrer Maldonado was supposed to have passed in
1588, from the coast of Labrador to the Great
Ocean." This voyage of Malaspina has not yet
been published, though long ago said to be in the
press; but that this was a main part of the voyage
would further appear from a letter of a particular
friend of Malaspina's employed on the expedition,
who states, that a copy of Maldonado's journal was
procured from the Duc de l'Infantado.* We also
find, from the Introduction to the Voyage of Le
* Voyage de la Mer Atlantique à l'Océan Pacifique, &c. traduit
d'un M. S. Espagnol, par Ch. Amoretti, 1812. Plaisance, 1812.
128
1588.
DISCOVERIES OF
!
Sutil and Mexicana,* that the commander of this
expedition was also furnished with a copy of the
manuscript journal of the supposed voyage of
Maldonado.
The manner in which this spurious voyage
found its way to the public is this:-Amoretti, the
librarian of the Ambrosian library at Milan, in his
examination of the manuscripts, with the view of
publishing such of them (agreeably with the inten-
tion of its founder, the Cardinal Borromeo) as should
be found to contain new and instructive matter,
was struck with the title of a small volume in the
Spanish language, importing to be the "Relation
of the Discovery of the Strait of Anian, by
Laurent Ferrer Maldonado," &c. At first he was
disposed to consider it only as a tale to amuse the
curious; but on reading it attentively, he found it
so strongly marked with the character of authen-
ticity and veracity, that he determined to translate
and publish it, with the addition of some notes and
a short dissertation to prove that it supported the
character of both; and that he was more particu-
larly urged to this step from M. de Humboldt and
others having consigned the manuscript, without
knowing what it contained, to the mass of geogra-
phical impostures. M. Amoretti, however, had
one advocate, and but one for the "veracity and
* Published at Madrid, 1802.
1588.
129
MALDONADO.
authenticity" of the voyage in question in the
person of M. Buache, the French geographer, who
read a memoir on the subject, before the French
Academy of Sciences, as far back as 1790. The
forgery, however, is incontrovertibly proved from
all the circumstances therein mentioned being
wholly at variance with our present knowledge of
things as they actually exist. It cannot possibly
now mislead any one not grossly ignorant of geo-
graphy; and its numerous anachronisms might have
led to its detection even at the time the voyage is
stated to have been made; but the truth seems to be
that this manuscript, like many others, was locked
up among the musty records of the state, and kept
so long concealed, that, when again brought to
light, it was as new to the Spaniards as to the rest
of the world. It evidently appears to have been
fabricated many years subsequent to the date of
the supposed voyage, as it notices the discoveries
of Quiros, which were not known till the year
1607. Captain Burney has conjectured that it is
the fabrication of some Fleming, as the reckoning
of distances is in German leagues, fifteen to the
degree, and not in the Spanish league of 17 to a
degree. As this "Relation" is at any rate a curi-
ous document, and has never appeared in the
English language, a translation from a Spanish
copy of the original manuscript, in the possession
of the Duc d'Infantado, will be found in the
VOL. I.
K
130
1592.
DISCOVERIES OF
Appendix,* which will render any extract of it
here, or any further comment, unnecessary.†
JUAN DE FUCA. 1592.
The authenticity of the narrative, given by this
person, of a voyage from New Spain for the dis-
covery of the Estrecho d'Anian, rests on better
grounds than the voyage of Maldonado. The vera-
city of the narrator has frequently been called in
question, because he happened to be wrong in his
conclusions; but the facts of his statement have,
in our times, been in so many instances verified,
as scarcely to leave a doubt of the reality of the
voyage. Besides, the little that we have is at
second-hand, and the mere record of a conver-
sation, misunderstood probably in some points,
and imperfectly stated in most of them. Under
such circumstances, the story of JUAN DE FUCA
ought not to be canvassed with the severity of
criticism.
The story of this voyage is as follows: Mr.
Michael Lok, consul for the Turkey merchants at
* Obtained from Don Filipe Bauza, Superintendant of the
Hydrographical Department in Madrid.
† The detection of this German imposture may be seen in
Burney's Hist. of Voyages; in the Quarterly Review, No. XXXI.;
and in Baron de Zach's Journal, by Baron de Lindenau, 1812.
1592.
131
JUAN DE FUCA.
Aleppo, transmits to England a note, of which
the following is the substance and nearly a copy.
He says, "when I was in Venice, in April 1596,
happily arrived there an old man, about sixty
years of age, called commonly Juan de Fuca, but
named properly Apostolos Valerianus, of nation a
Greek, born in Cephalonia, of profession a mariner,
an ancient pilot of ships." He then goes on to
say, that one John Douglas, an Englishman,
brought this man before him, who made the fol-
lowing declaration, in the Italian and Spanish
languages-First, "that he had been in the West
Indies of Spain forty years; that he was in the Spa-
nish ship which, in returning from the Philippines
towards Nova Spania, was robbed and taken at
the Cape California by Captain Candish, an Eng-
lishman, whereby he lost 60,000 ducats of his
own goods; that he was pilot of three small ships
sent from Mexico by the Viceroy, armed with
100 men, to discover the straits of Anian, along
the coast of the South Sea, and to fortify that
strait to resist the attempts of the English to pass
into the South Sea; that, however, a mutiny
broke out among the seamen, which prevented
any thing being done in the way of discovery on
that voyage.
Secondly, "that the Viceroy of Mexico sent
him out again in 1592, with a small caravel and a
pinnace, to follow up the said voyage for the dis-
covery of the straits of Anian, and the passage
K Q
132
1592.
DISCOVERIES OF
thereof into the sea usually called the North Sea;
that he coasted along Nova Spania and Cali-
fornia until he came to the latitude of 47°, where
the land trending north and north-east, with
a broad inlet of the sea between 47 and 48
degrees of latitude, he entered therein, sailing more
than twenty days, continuing on various courses
and passing divers islands within the said strait;
that at the entrance of the north-west coast thereof
there is a great headland or island, with an exceed-
ing high pinnacle or spired rock, like a pillar
thereupon; that he saw some people on the land
clad in beasts' skins."
He further stated, "that being entered thus far
into the strait, and being come into the North Sea
already, and finding it wide enough every where,
and 30 or 40 leagues within the mouth of the
strait where he entered, he conceived he had now
discharged his duty, and returned again towards
Nova Spania, where he arrived at Acapulco in the
year 1592, hoping for his reward from the Viceroy
for this discovery; that, after waiting two years,
the Viceroy of Mexico sent him to Spain; that
he was welcomed at the king's court, but that he
was unable to obtain any satisfactory reward. He
therefore stole out of Spain and came to Italy, to
go home again and live among his own kindred."
He also said, "that, hoping the Queen of Eng-
land would do him justice for his goods lost by
Captain Candish, he would be content to go into
1592.
133
JUAN DE FUCA.
England, and serve her Majesty in that voyage for
the discovery of the north-west passage into the
South Sea, if she would furnish him with only one
ship of 40 tons burden and a pinnace, and that he
would perform it in ninety days time from one end
of the strait to the other.'
""
Mr. Lok then states, "that he wrote accordingly
to the Right Honourable the old Lord Treasurer
Cecil, and to Sir Walter Raleigh, and to Martin
Richard Hakluyt, that famous cosmographer, cer-
tifying them hereof; and that he only prayed
for one hundred pounds to bring the old pilot to
England, but that the money was not ready, and
the matter was dropped at that time;" that, how-
ever, on making preparations for his return to
England, Mr. Lok wrote to this old pilot in July
1596, then in Cephalonia, and received an answer
from him, dated in September, expressing his
willingness to go to England, and adding, that
twenty others, good men, were ready to accom-
pany him; but he asks for money, and repeats the
charge of Captain Candish having robbed him:
Mr. Lok, being some time longer detained in
Venice, wrote to him again in 1597, and after that
sent him another letter, to which he answered in
the Greek language on the 20th October, 1598,
that he was still willing to go if money was sent
to him to bear his expenses.
"Lastly," says Mr. Lok, "when I was at Zante,
K 3
134
1592.
DISCOVERIES OF
in June 1602, minding to pass from thence for
England by sea, for that I had then received a
little money, I wrote another letter to this Greek
pilot to Cephalonia, and required him to come
to me at Zante to go with me into England; but
I had no answer thereof from him, for that, as I
heard afterwards at Zante, he was then dead, or
very likely to die of great sickness.
""*
The Spaniards deny all knowledge of any such
voyage as that mentioned by the old Greek pilot;
but this is no ground whatever for calling in
question its veracity. Mr. Lok was a public cha-
racter, and living in England when Purchas
printed his narrative; he was also known as the
translator of the last five decades of Peter Martyr,
which treat of American discovery. Candish him-
self states, that in the rich Spanish ship called the
Santa Anna, and taken by him off Cape California,
there was a skilful pilot. † But the most power-
ful argument in favour of the reality of Juan de
Fuca's voyage is the subsequent discovery of a
strait, on the north-west coast of America, exactly
on the spot where the old pilot placed it; within
which are islands and broad channels, leading in
all the directions as mentioned by him. This
strait, it is true, opens through Queen Charlotte's
Sound into the Pacific, which the old man mistook
* "Note made by Michael Lok."-Purchas, vol. iii.
+ Candish's Voyage.--Id. vol. i. p. 56.
p. 849.
1592.
135
JUAN DE FUCA.
for the great North Sea; and such a mistake is
not very surprizing at this early period of naviga-
tion, when the instruments were imperfect, and
theory had made but little progress, and, it
may be added, when men confidently believed that
such a communication as he was in search of,
between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, did
actually exist.
When, therefore, the late Doctor Douglas so
hastily pronounced the story of De Fuca to be
"the fabric of imposture," he committed an act
of great injustice to the memory of the old pilot;
for the ink was scarcely dry, which transmitted to
posterity this unmerited censure, when the very
strait, and the sea within it, and the savages
clothed in skins, were all recognized by Meares,
and since that by Vancouver and many others,
just as they were described by the old Greek pilot
to Mr. Lok; and modern geographers, willing to
do justice to the memory of the first discoverer of
Queen Charlotte's Sound, formed by the archi-
pelago on the west coast of America, between the
latitudes of 48 and 50 degrees, have assigned to
the southern opening into that sound the name of
the Entrance or Strait of Juan de Fuca.
* Introduction to Cook's last Voyage.
K 4
136
DISCOVERIES OF CORNELISON, 1594.
!
CORNELIS CORNELISON, BRANDS YSBRANTS, AND
WILLIAM BARENTZ OF BARENTZON. 1594.
No sooner had the Low Countries been deli-
vered from the yoke of Spain, chiefly by the
exertions of England, than Dutch capital began
to find its way into foreign channels, and a spirit
of enterprize to infuse itself into the commercial
pursuits of this industrious nation, which, in a
very short space of time, raised it to a degree of
power and prosperity unequalled at any former
period, and scarcely surpassed by that of its
deliverers.
Desirous of participating with other maritime
powers of Europe in the trade of the East, it was
obvious that a passage, which would lead by the
north to India and China, would be to them, of all
others, the most advantageous. With a view to
the discovery of such a passage, the United Pro-
vinces set forth, in the year 1594, an expedition,
consisting of four ships, whereof two were fur-
nished by the city of Amsterdam, one by Zealand,
and one by Enkhuysen; the first, called the Mes-
senger, was commanded by BARENTZ; the name of
the Zealand ship was the Swan, under the com-
mand of CORNELISON, who was also appointed
Admiral; and the last was the Mercury, com-
manded by YSBRANTS. The ships from Zealand
1594.
137
YSBRANTS, AND BARENTZ.
and Enkhuysen sailed together on the 5th June,
reached Kilduyn in Lapland on the 23d, left it on
the 2d July, passed Kolgoy on the 3d, and soon
after fell in with much ice and numerous seals.
Proceeding to the eastward, they found the
weather, about the middle of July, as warm as in
Holland during the dog days, and the musquitoes.
were exceedingly troublesome.
On approaching the island and strait of Way-
gatz or Waigatz, they met with great quantities of
drift-wood, and on the shores of the island whole
piles of it, heaped up as if by art, some of which
were large trees that had been torn up by the
roots. The face of the island is described as being
covered with verdure, and embellished with a
multitude of beautiful flowers. In passing round
the south part of the island they observed from
three to four hundred wooden idols, of men, wo-
men, and children, their faces generally turned
towards the east. To this point the Dutch gave
the name of Afgoden hoek or Idol Point; but by
the Russians it is called Waigati Noss, or Cape of
Carved Images ;* and hence the name Waijatz or
Waigatz, which by many has been supposed,
erroneously as it would seem, of Dutch origin,
wai-gat signifying in that language windy or
stormy strait or hole; but the former is undoubt-
edly the proper derivation, as the name was known
* Forster's Northern Voyages, p. 413.
138
1594.
DISCOVERIES OF CORNELISON,
to Steven Burough in 1565, long before any
Dutchman had been so far to the eastward.
On passing the strait they continued their course
to the eastward, but met with considerable inter-
ruption from ice which, at one time, came floating
in such quantities as to oblige them to return.
But on observing it to separate and disperse by a
change of wind and by the current, they again
stood on to the eastward until they came into a
deep blue sea nearly free from ice. At this time
they were not more than forty leagues from
Waigatz strait, and the main land to the southward
of them was in sight, trending apparently to the
south-east. These circumstances gave them such
confident hopes of an open passage to Cathaia,
that, instead of following up the actual discovery
of it, they agreed to turn back, in order to be the
first to convey the happy tidings to Holland. They
accordingly repassed the strait, gave names to
some islands already named, called at Kilduyn,
and from thence made the best of their way home,
which they reached on the 26th September. This
part of the voyage, containing the operations
of the two ships which sailed together, is written
by H. Van Linschoten; that which follows by
Gerrit de Veer.
Barentz, in the Messenger, after crossing the
White sea, stood to the north-eastward, and having
made the west coast of Nova Zembla on the 4th
July, proceeded along it to the northward, giving
1594.
139
YSBRANTS, AND BARENTZ.
the names of Lanjenes and Bapo to two headlands,
and to a good bay, in which he anchored, that of
Lomsbay; thus named from a species of penguin
so called by the Dutch, which was found here
in vast numbers.* The latitude of this bay was
observed to be 74° 2. He next passed Admiral's
Island, Cape Negro, Black Point, Williams's Island,
which is in 75° 55′; and on the shores of which
was found much drift-wood, and a multitude of
sea-horses. Here also they met with a most
tremendous white bear of wonderful strength,
which, after wounding with musket ball, they
endeavoured to get into the boat by throwing a
rope round her; but the bear needed no such as-
sistance, having nearly succeeded in getting into the
boat of her own accord and driving all the people
therein to the opposite end, when luckily the rope
entangled her with the rudder and checked her
career; one of the crew at this moment, em-
boldened by her helpless situation, stepped aft and
put her to death with a half-pike.
From hence they still proceeded northerly, pass-
ing the Island of Crosses and Point Nassau, and
came to an extensive field of ice about the lat. 77°
25′, of which they could see no end from the top.
* Purchas, following the old translator Phillip, transforms these
birds into " a certayne kinde of beares." vol. iii. p. 474. But
a French editor has made a more absurd mistake, by metamor-
phosing the puffins, or "the northern parrots" of the Dutch into
St. Louis. Hist. Gén. des Voy. tom. xxii. p. 128.
140
1594.
DISCOVERIES OF CORNELISON,
Returning to the southward they named the
nearest point of Nova Zembla in sight Ice Point,
lying in lat. 77°; and here they found certain
stones that glistened like gold, which on that ac-
count they named Gold-stones. Farther south
they gave the name of Orange to certain islands, on
the shore of one of which they saw about two
hundred sea-horses basking themselves in the sun,
which they attacked with hatchets, cuttle-axes
(cutlasses), and pikes, without being able to kill
one of them, but had recourse to the cruel
expedient of striking some of the teeth out of their
mouths. The morse, walrus, or sea-horse, is not
better described by Cook, than we here find it by
De Veer: "This sea-horse is a wonderful strong
monster of the sea, much bigger than an oxe,
which keepes continually in the seas, having a
skin like a sea-calfe, or seale, with very short
hayre, mouthed like a lion, and many times they
lye upon the ice; they are hardly killed unlesse
you strike them just upon the forehead; it hath
four feete, but no eares, and commonly it hath
two young ones at a time. And when the fisher,
men chance to finde them upon a flake of ice with
their young ones, shee casteth her young ones
before her into the water, and then takes them in
her arms, and so plungeth up and downe with
them; and when she will revenge herselfe upon
the boates, or make resistance against them, then
she casts her young ones from her againe, and
1594.
141
YSBRANTS, AND BARENTZ.
with all her force goeth towards the boate, (whereby
our men were once in no small danger, for that
the sea-horse had almost stricken her teeth into
the sterne of their boate,) thinking to overthrow it,
but by meanes of the great crie that the men made,
she was afraide, and swomme away againe, and
tooke her young ones againe in her armes. They
have two teeth sticking out of their mouthes, on
each side one, each being about halfe an ell long,
and are esteemed to bee as good as any ivorie or
elephant's teeth.”*
The ice now came floating down in such quan-
tities, and the weather was so misty, cold and tem-
pestuous, that the crew first began to murmur and
then refused to proceed any farther. Accordingly
on the 1st August, Barentz consented to return to
the southward, by the same way they had ad-
vanced. In coasting along till they came into lat.
71° 33', a large inlet was discovered which Barentz
judged to be the place where Oliver Brunel† had
been before, called Costine sarca. They landed
farther south on Sion's Point, where they perceived
some Europeans must have been, for they there
found six sacks of rye-meal, a cross, a heap of
stones, and a large cannon shot, and three houses
built of wood, near which stood five or six coffins
* Three Voyages made by the Dutch into the Northern Seas.
Trans. by Phillip, 1607.
+ An Englishman, of whom a vague mention only is made by
the Dutch.
142
1594.
DISCOVERIES OF
by graves with dead men's bones, the coffins filled
with stones. They also discovered the wreck of a
Russian ship with a keel forty feet long. To this
"faire haven" they gave the name of Meal-
harbour, in gratitude for the relief it afforded
them. On the 15th they arrived at the two
islands called Matfloe and Delgoy, where they
met with the Zealand and Enkhuysen ships, which
had repassed Waigatz strait, on their return, the
same day, and from whom they learned that the
latter had been as far to the eastward, according
to their conjecture, as the river Obe; that they
were not far from Cape Tabin, which is the point
of Tartary that reached towards the kingdom
of Cathaia, and that, south-east from Waigatz,
they had discovered a small island, to which they
gave the name of Staaten Island, and that "there
they found many stones that were of christall
mountayne, being a kind of diamond." From
hence the three ships set sail together, and arrived
in the Texel, as before mentioned, on the 16th
September.
WILLIAM BARENTZ-Second Voyage. 1595.
Prince Maurice and the States-General of the
United Provinces entertained the most sanguine
hopes, from the report of Linschoten in particular,
of an eastern passage to China. They accordingly
caused a fleet of seven ships to be fitted out for
1595.
143
WILLIAM BARENTZ.
the new expedition, six of which were laden with
divers kinds of wares, merchandizes, and money,
and factors appointed to dispose of the said wares;
of these Jacob Van Heemskerke was the chief; and
WILLIAM BARENTZ was constituted pilot-major-
the seventh vessel was a small pinnace, which, on
reaching Cape Tabin, was to proceed to examine
the remainder of the passage, and bring back news
thereof. These immense preparations were alto-
gether rendered nugatory by the tardy movement
of the machine. It was the 2d July before the
expedition left the Texel, and it did not reach the
coast of Nova Zembla before the 17th August,
a period of the year at which it ought, if suc-
cessful, to have been at least the length of the
Aleutian islands in the Pacific. They now found,
as might have been anticipated, the coast of Nova
Zembla unapproachable on account of the ice.
Turning therefore to the southward, they passed
Waigatz, and landed on the northern shore, but
could find neither men nor houses; but on the
23d, they fell in with a Russian lodgie or boat
of Petchora, sewed together with ropes, in quest
of sea-horses' teeth, train oil, and geese. Their
ships, they said, to which their boat belonged, were
to come out from the coast of Russia to fetch them,
then to sail by the river Obe, to a place called
Ugoleta, in Tartary; that it would be nine or ten
weeks before it began to freeze, but when it once
began it would freeze so hard that men might pass
over the ice to Tartary.
144
1595.
DISCOVERIES OF
On the south side of Waigatz, they had some
intercourse with the Samoyeds, whose appearance
and manners are described at considerable length;
and from them they learned that five days sailing
from thence to the north-east would bring them to
a point of land, beyond which there was a great
sea stretching to the south-east. This was con-
sidered as joyful information, as it fell in exactly
with their notions of the direction of the passage
to Cathaia. They parted with these people on
friendly terms, but the Dutch having taken into
their boat one of the carved images, a Samoyed
came after them to fetch it, and found means of
signifying that they had not done well in carrying
it off, on which it was returned, and the Samoyed
carried it to a hill and replaced it among several
hundreds of the same kind.
Some of the crew had landed on the main shore
to seek for stones, which are stated to be a kind
of diamond; and as two of the men were lying
together, "a greate leane white beare came sud-
denly stealing out, and caught one of them fast
by the necke, who, not knowing what it was
that tooke him by the necke, cryed out and
sayd, 'Who is that that pulls me so by the necke?'
wherewith the other, that lay not farre from him,
lifted up his head to see who it was, and perceiving
it to bee a monstrous beare, cryed out and sayd,
"Oh mate! it is a beare!' and therewith presently
rose up and ranne away." The bear is said to
1595.
145
WILLIAM BARÈNTZ.
have instantly "bit his head in sunder and suckt
out his blood;" and on being attacked by about
twenty people, some with pikes, and others with
muskets, she turned furiously upon the party,
seized upon one of them, whom she tore in pieces,
and all the rest ran away. The people on board,
perceiving what had happened, went on shore, and
about thirty made an attack on this furious
animal. The purser shot her in the head between
the eyes, which did not oblige her to let go her
hold of the dead man, but she lifted up her head
with the dead man in her mouth; on perceiving,
however, that she began to stagger, the purser and
a Scotchman drew out their cutlasses and struck
her with such force that both broke; still she held
fast her prey, till one William Geysen felled her to
the ground by striking with all his might with his
piece upon her snout, when they contrived to dis-
patch her, by cutting her throat.
Finding it impossible, on account of the great
quantity of ice, to make any progress in the Tar-
tarian sea, and "the weather being mistie, melan-
choly, and snowie," they drove with the current
back again through the strait, and on the 15th
September the whole fleet took their departure
from Waigatz; on the 29th they entered Wardhuys,
from whence they sailed again on the 10th Octo-
ber, and on the 18th November arrived in the
Maes.
VOL. I.
L
( 146 )
WILLIAM BARENTZ-Third Voyage. 1596.
After this luckless voyage, for which such great
and unnecessary expense and preparations had
been made, the States-General seemed to have
felt no inclination to renew the attempt for the
discovery of a north-east passage; but they, never-
theless, issued a proclamation, holding forth a cer-
tain reward to such person or persons as should
accomplish a voyage to China by this route. Upon
the strength of this encouragement, the merchants
of Amsterdam fitted out two ships, one of which
was commanded by Jacob Van Heemskerke, and
WILLIAM BARENTZ appointed chief pilot; and the
master of the other was Cornelis Ryp. They sailed
from Amsterdam on the 10th of May. On the 1st of
June they had no night, and on the 4th, in lat. 71°,
a strange sight appeared in the heavens. It was two
parahelia or mock suns, which are thus described:
"on each side of the sunne there was another
sunne and two raine-bowes, that past cleane thorow
the three sunnes, and then two raine-bowes more,
the one compassing round about the sunnes, and
the other crosse thorow the great rundle; the great
rundle standing with the uttermost point elevated
above the horizon 28°." In the original Dutch
voyage, by De Veer, a figure is given of the three
suns and the rain-bows.*
* Waerachtighe Beschriv. van de drie Seylagien, &c.
1596.
147
WILLIAM BARENTZ.
On the 5th they fell in with the first ice, which,
being in fleecy detached pieces, some of the crew
mistook for white swans. On the 7th they were
in lat. 74°, sailing through the ice "as if betweene
two lands." On the 9th they came to Bear (after-
wards Cherry) island; and here they killed a bear,
whose skin measured twelve feet in length. On
the 19th they found, by observation, that they had
reached the lat. 80° 11', at which time they had
much land to the eastward. On this coast, after a
hard fight, they killed another bear, whose skin
was thirteen feet long. On a small island they
found multitudes of eggs of certain red geese; the
birds, when driven away, cried rot, rot, rot.*
"Those geese were of a perfit red colour, such as
come into Holland about Weiringen, and everie
yeere are there taken in abundance, but till this
time it was never knowne where they hatcht their
egges; so that some men have taken upon them to
write that they sit upon trees in Scotland, that
hang over the water, and such egges as fail from
them downe into the water become young geese,
and swim there out of the water; but those that
fall upon the land burst in sunder, and are lost."
This fable of the barnacles is thus, in the opinion
of De Veer, for the first time refuted; and, he
continues," it is not to be wondered at, that no
man could tell where they breed their egges, for
* That is, red, red, red.
L 2
148
1596.
DISCOVERIES OF
that no man that ever wee knew had ever been
under 80°: nor that land under 80° was never set
down in any card, much lesse the red geese that
breed therein." This is, unquestionably, the first
discovery of Spitzbergen; and it is further ob-
served, and very truly, that "there groweth here
leaves and grasse, yet in Nova Zembla, under 76°,
there groweth neither leaves nor grasse;" and such
is the providence of nature in the appropriation of
the animal to the vegetable kingdom, that while the
more southern climate of Nova Zembla produces
only carnivorous animals, the northernmost part
of Spitzbergen is supplied with herbivorous deer.
He does not exactly state that they were unable
to proceed higher to the northward, though a good
deal of ice appeared around them. By their lati-
tude it would seem they were off Amsterdam
island, on which is that famous foreland, since so
well known to whalers under the name of Hakluyt's
headland. The variation of the compass was found
to be 16° W. From hence they steered south-
west to avoid the ice, and on the 1st of July were
again opposite to Bear island. Here the ships
mutually agreed to part company, Jan Cornelis
being of opinion that he should find a passage to
the eastward of that land which lay under 80°,
and accordingly returned to the northward; while
Jacob Van Heemskerke, or rather his pilot, Barentz,
deeming it more likely to find the passage to the
eastward, in a lower parallel, steered for Waigatz
Strait.
1596.
149
WILLIAM BARENTZ.
The latter vessel, after a long passage, occasioned
by bad weather, contrary winds, and much floating
ice, reached the coast of Nova Zembla on the 17th
of July, about Lomsbay. She then stood to the
northward as near to the land as the ice would
permit, and on the 20th Barentz found, by obser-
vation, that they had reached the lat. 76° 15'. It
was not before the 6th of August that they suc-
ceeded in doubling point Nassau; and the wind
being from the east they were glad to make fast
the ship to a mass of ice thirty-six fathom under
water, and sixteen fathom above it; this ice-berg
is stated to have suddenly been rent in pieces,
"for with one great cracke it burst into foure
hundred pieces at the least." Besides this mass,
the sea was covered with flake ice and various
other ice-bergs, but none quite so large. It was
in vain they struggled to get to the eastward; the
wind blew strong from that quarter, bringing with
it immense patches of ice. Finding all their
attempts ineffectual, they were at length reluc-
tantly compelled to return; the ship, indeed, was
generally beset in the ice, and, while drifting with
it, the rudder was broken in pieces, the boat crushed
flat between the ice, and they expected every
moment that a similar fate would befall the ship.
It was now evident that every hope was cut off,
not only from the possibility of proceeding farther
to the eastward, but also of reaching Waigatz by
the eastern coast of Nova Zembla; they therefore
13
150
1596.
DISCOVERIES OF
1
4.
attempted to get back by the way they had come.
On the 26th, with great exertion, they had so far
succeeded as to reach the western side of Ice-
haven, but it had nearly been to them a fatal suc-
cess; for, in this dismal spot, "we were forced," says
De Veer, "in great cold, povertie, miserie and
griefe, to stay all that winter."
The prevailing north-easterly winds brought into
the bay such prodigious quantities of ice, that the
ship, had she even sustained no previous damage,
could by no possibility have been moved out of the
bay that season: but, lifted up as she was between
heaps of ice, bruised and bilged, with her rudder
torn off, very little hope remained that she would
ever again be got afloat. The unhappy crew,
therefore, determined at once to abandon the ship,
and to prepare for passing the winter in this cold
and dreary spot; and luckily for them they found,
at no great distance, a sufficient quantity of drift-
wood, not only to build them a capacious house,
but also to serve them for fuel. The party, thus
doomed to the melancholy fate which awaited
them, amounted to seventeen persons, of whom
one, who could least be spared, the carpenter, died
the first week, and another was taken ill. They
contrived, however, to build their house, but, De
Veer says, it was so dreadfully cold" that, as wee
put a naile into our mouthes, (as carpenters use to
do,) there would ice hang thereon when wee tooke
it out againe, and make the bloud follow." The
journal of the proceedings of these poor people
1596.
151
WILLIAM BARENTZ.
during "their cold, comfortlesse, darke and dread-
ful winter," is intensely and painfully interesting.
No murmuring escapes them in their most hope-
less and afflicted situation; but such a spirit of true
piety, and a tone of such mild and subdued resig-
nation to Divine providence, breathe through the
whole narrative, that it is impossible to peruse the
simple tale of their sufferings and contemplate
their forlorn situation, without the deepest emotion
for the unhappy fate of so many wretched beings,
cut off from all human aid, and almost from all
hope of their ever being able to leave their dark
and dismal abode.
On the 4th of November the last feeble rays of
the sun took leave of them; and from that time the
cold was observed progressively to increase, till it
became so intense as to be nearly beyond endurance.
The wine and beer they had saved out of the ship
were presently frozen and lost all their strength;
excepting a small portion of each that still re-
mained liquid, but which was not drinkable. By
means of large fires of wood, by placing heated
stones to their feet, and using double clothing and
fox-skin caps on their heads, they were just able
to keep themselves from being frozen; but it was
a dreadful task to go out in search of drift-wood,
and to haul it on a sled for a considerable distance
over ice and snow, and sometimes in such dark
and piercing weather as to take the skin off their
hands and faces. They once had recourse to the
L 4
152
1596.
DISCOVERIES OF
coals on board the vessel, but the fire made with
these had nearly suffocated the whole party.
Their clock soon became frozen, and it was then
necessary for some of them, by turns, constantly to
watch the hour-glass, that they might not mistake
the time. Being frequently attacked by bears,
which assaulted their wooden hut, and opposed
them whenever they stirred abroad, they found
means to kill several of these ferocious animals,
and used their fat for their lamps; from a single
bear they extracted about a hundred pounds of
grease. Finding the liver of this animal palatable
food, they eat heartily of it, but it made them all
sick; and three of the party were so ill, in con-
sequence thereof, that the skin came off their
bodies from head to foot.
It deserves to be remarked, that when the sun
disappeared, the bears immediately took leave of
them; and their place was as speedily supplied by
white foxes, which came in great abundance, and
served them both as food and clothing, their flesh
tasting like that of rabbits. By setting traps on
the roof of their house, they caught abundance of
these useful animals; but immediately after the
re-appearance of the sun, the foxes took their
departure and the bears again renewed their
visits.
When the 19th of December arrived these
unhappy men began to receive consolation at the
thought that half the total absence of the sun had
now been got over. Miserable as their situation
1596.
153
WILLIAM BARENTZ.
66
'On
was, and to all appearance perfectly hopeless, they
could even jest and make themselves merry.
Christmas-day," says the writer, "it was foule
wether, with a north-west wind, and yet though it
was foule wether we heard the foxes run over our
house, wherewith some of our men said it was an
ill signe; and while we sate disputing why it
should be an ill signe, some of our men made
answere that it was an ill signe because we could
not take them to put them into the pot to rost
them, for that had beene a very good signe for us.'
And after labouring hard all the day of the 5th of
January in digging away the snow that had for
several days blocked up their door, and cleaned out
their hut, "we remembered ourselves," says the
narrator, "that it was Twelfth-even, and then we
prayed our Maister that we might be merry that
night, and said that we were content to spend
some of the wine that night which we had spared,
and which was our share every second day, and
whereof for certaine daies we had not drunke;
and so that night we made merry and drunke to
the three kings, and therewith we had the pound
of meale whereof we made pancakes with oyle, and
every man a white bisket, which we sopt in wine:
and so supposing that we were in our owne
country and amongst our friends, it comforted us
as well as if we had made a great banket in our
owne house; and we also made tickets, and our
gunner was king of Nova Zembla, which is at
154
1597.
DISCOVERIES OF
least two hundred miles long, and lyeth betweene
two seas."*
The raptures felt by these unhappy men at the
first blush of the sun may easily be conceived.
This joyful event was first announced to them
about the 16th of January, when they perceived
"a certaine rednesse in the skie," though William
Barentz convinced them that the sun himself would
not make his appearance above the horizon for three
weeks yet to come. However, on the 24th of Janu-
ary, "it was faire cleare weather," says Gerrit de
Veer, “with a west wind; then I and Jacob Hems-
kerk, and another with us, went to the sea-side, on
the south side of Nova Zembla, where, contrary to
our expectation, I first saw the edge of the sunne,
wherewith we went speedily home againe to tell
William Barentz and the rest of our companions
that joyful newes. But William Barentz, being a
wise and well experienced pilot, would not believe
it, esteeming it to be about forteen daies too soone
for the sunne to shine in that part of the world ;
but we earnestly affirmed the contrary, and said
that we had seen the sunne." On the two follow-
ing days they had thick and foggy weather, but on
the 27th it was clear; " and then," says the jour-
nalist, "we saw the sunne in his full roundnesse
above the horizon, which made us all glad, and we
* True and perfect Description of Three Voyages, so strange and
wonderfull that the like hath never been heard of before. Trans. by
William Phillip. London. 1609.
1597.
155
WILLIAM BARENTZ.
gave
God hearty thankes for his grace shewed unto
us, that that glorious light appeared to us againe.”
Their joy, however, was somewhat damped by the
death of their sick companion on the preceding
day.
The accuracy of the Dutch journalist, respecting
the re-appearance of the sun, has been called in
question by most philosophers and astronomers
who have adverted to this account, but it has also
had its defenders. It is possible, and indeed not
improbable, that after the freezing of the clock,
and in the darkness of a long night, they might
have lost some time, however much they were in-
terested in marking even the hours as they passed
away--but so very few observations have yet been
made in high latitudes, on atmospherical refraction,
that a circumstance stated with so much honesty
and simplicity in a daily journal, should not,
perhaps, be rejected as untrue, because it is un-
common. Under ordinary circumstances of re-
fraction the appearance of the sun would seem to
have been premature by seven or eight days.
The bears did not fail to return with the light of
the sun, and were now, if possible, more than ever
troublesome after their long sleep; the cold became
more intense as the days lengthened, the frost
more severe, and the snow more frequent, so that it
was the month of June before they could set about
repairing their two boats, and fitting them for a
long voyage from their dreary place of residence.
To repair the ship was out of the question, as she
156
1597.
DISCOVERIES OF
was completely bilged and still fast in the ice.
On the 13th of that month every thing was in
readiness for their departure; previous to which a
statement was drawn up in writing by Barentz
and left in the wooden house, containing their
names, detailing their late misfortunes and what
had befallen them in that wretched abode; after
which, committing themselves to the will and
mercy of God, they left their Icy haven in the two
open boats, with a view to return the way they
had come, along the western shore of Nova
Zembla. They had not proceeded far, however,
before a misfortune befell them which over-
whelmed them all with grief and despair. Poor
Barentz, in whom all their confidence had rested,
died on the 20th of June; being ill when they left
their house, he, and another of the name of Claes
Adrianson, had been obliged to be taken to the
boats on a sledge. On being told that Adrianson
was so sick that he could not live, William Barentz
spake and said, "I thinke I shal not live long
after him"-he then said to De Veer, "Gerrit, give
me some drinke; and he had no sooner drunke but
he was taken with so sodain a qualme that he
turned his eyes in his head and died." The same
day Adrianson died also.
There are numerous instances on record of ex-
traordinary voyages being performed in rough
and tempestuous seas in open boats, with the
most scanty supply of provisions and water, but
there is probably not one instance, that can be
1597.
157
WILLIAM BARENTZ.
compared to that in question, where fifteen per-
sons, in two open boats, had to pass over a frozen
ocean more than eleven hundred miles, "in the ice,
over the ice, and through the sea," exposed to all
the dangers of being at one time overwhelmed by
the waves, at another of being crushed to atoms by
the whirling of large masses of ice, and to the con-
stant attack of ferocious bears, enduring for upwards
of forty days severe cold, fatigue, famine and dis-
ease; and yet, excepting the two who died, and who
entered the boats in a state of sickness and debility,
the rest arrived in good health and spirits at Cola,
where they had the satisfaction of meeting with
their old friend and companion Jan Cornelis
Ryp, who had deserted them to go to the north-
ward the year before. They had learned, indeed,
at Kilduyn, that three Dutch ships were at Cola;
and a Laplander, whom they sent over land,
returned with a letter from Cornelis Ryp; but they
could scarcely flatter themselves that it was the
same who had sailed with them from Holland.
now took them on board his ship, and, on the 29th
of October, they all arrived safely in the Maes, to
the great joy of their friends, who had given them
up for lost.
{
•
He
To what extent of northern latitude Cornelis
Ryp had proceeded the preceding year, or what
adventures he met with, or discoveries he made;
is no where stated; but as he set out with the in-
tention of sailing along the eastern side of the land
158
1596.
DISCOVERIES OF
they had before coasted to the 80° of latitude, it
is probable he circumnavigated Spitzbergen, in
which case he must have reached the 81st degree
of northern latitude.
The three voyages of Barentz are written by
Gerrit de Veer, who was on all of them; the first
two have also been published by Linschoten, who
enters into more nautical details, and gives views
of the land and charts of the bays, harbours, head-
lands, &c.; but the deepest interest attaches to the
last voyage, of which it is to be regretted there is
no good translation in the English language:
WILLIAM ADAMS. 1596.
Purchas, in his "Pilgrimes," stoutly asserts the
honour of the first discovery of Spitzbergen and
Nova Zembla to be due to our countrymen, Sir
Hugh Willoughby and Steven Burough; and
though he avows his partiality for the Dutch,
who" in the glory of navigation are so neere us,
and worthie to be honoured," yet it is most true,
he adds, that "the English hath beene the elder
brother, a doctor and ductor to the Hollanders, in
their martiall feats at home, and neptunian exploits
abroad."* To a certain extent this is unquestion-
ably true. In all their early foreign voyages they
* Purchas his Pilgrimes, vol. iii. p. 461.
1596.
159
WILLIAM ADAMS.
engaged Englishmen as their pilots.
We have
seen in the preceding voyages of Barentz, that in
facing the ferocious bear, a Scotchman was one
of the most stout-hearted of the party; and the
Dutch themselves admit, that an Englishman of
the name of Brunell or Brownell, "moved with
the hope of gain, went from Enkhuysen to Pe-
chora," where he lost all by shipwreck, after he
had been on the coast of Nova Zembla, and given
the name of Costin-sarca (qu. Coasting-search ?*)
to a bay situated in about 714°; but it does not
any where appear, and the brief journal of Sir
Hugh Willoughby by no means sanctions such a
supposition, that this ill-fated commander was ever
within many degrees of Spitzbergen: the dis-
covery of this land is certainly due to the Dutch.
It might not have been suspected, however, from
De Veer's account of Barentz's three voyages,
that the extraordinary man, whose name stands at
the head of this section, was one of the English-
men employed on one or more of those voyages.
It is very probable, however, that the fact is so,
and that, in the year 1596, he accompanied
Cornelis Ryp to Spitzbergen. There can be no
doubt of his having lived some time in Holland
and been in the practice of piloting Dutch ships;
though, in the short account he gives of himself,
in his two letters addressed to his wife from Japan,
* Forster thinks, Constant-search.
1
160
1596.
DISCOVERIES OF
he is silent on this subject.* It could not, how-
ever, be any other than himself who gave the narra-
tive, which follows, to the Portugueze jesuits at
the court of Japan; for his good friend Timothy
Shelton of London, who, he tells us, was pilot of
the Admiral, was lost in that ship, and Thomas
Adams, his brother, was slain in battle.
It is well known that WILLIAM ADAMS was
engaged as master-pilot of a Dutch fleet of five
ships, bound on a voyage to the East Indies
through the strait of Magellan, which circum-
stance alone proves that his character must have
been well established in Holland. We know also
that the only vessel which escaped shipwreck was
that in which he was pilot; and that it was saved
only to be cast away on the coast of Japan;
that through the favour which he found in the
eyes of the Emperor, on account of his skill in
building ships, and instructing his people in mathe-
matics and navigation, he was the means of in-
troducing both the English and the Dutch to trade
with that empire; and that he was never per-
mitted to leave the country. †
Now it is mentioned incidentally in the records
of Portugueze navigation, that an Englishman
had performed a voyage to the northward, to a
* Purchas's Pilgrims, vol. i. p. 125.
+ Purchas's Pilgrims, ibid.-Harris, Coll, of Voy. vol. i. p. 856
-Astley, Coll. &c.
•
161
1596.
WILLIAM ADAMS.
degree of latitude beyond that which at this period
had ever been attained; and though no name is
given, yet it is evident, from the exact date and
other circumstances, that this Englishman could
have been no other than William Adams.
Diogo de Couto,* in detailing the disastrous
circumstances of the expedition sent by the Dutch
round Cape Horn, in the year 1598, under the
Vice-admiral Simon de Cordes, observes, that one
of the ships was driven by a storm on the coast
of Japan, having lost by a contagious disease her
Captain, whom he calls Corda, and one hundred
and fifty men; only twenty-five remaining alive,
who had more the appearance of corpses than of
living beings, and utterly unable to manage the
ship. The pilot of this ship," says Couto, "was
an Englishman, a good cosmographer, and with
some knowledge of astrology. He averred to the
jesuits at Meaco, that the Prince of Orange had
on several occasions employed him on services of
much importance; and particularly in the years
1593, 1594, and 1595, he sent him to discover the
route above Biarmia and Finmarchia for his ships
* Diogo de Couto, Decad. xii. Chap. 2.--The Author is in-
debted for this passage in Couto, and. for the account of the
Cortereals, to his highly esteemed friend Thomas Murdoch, Esq.
of Portland Place, whose extensive acquaintance with Spanish
and Portugueze literature would, and it is to be hoped will,
enable him to favour the public with many hidden treasures in
those languages.
VOL. I.
M
162
1596.
DISCOVERIES OF
to proceed to Japan, China, and the Moluccas, to
procure the riches of those islands; considering this
route not only much shorter, but also much safer
from our corsairs and that the last attempt was
made in 1595, (probably 1596,) when he reached
eighty-two degrees north; and although it was in
the middle of summer, and the day almost con-
tinual, as there was no night, except for about
two hours, yet was the cold so excessive, with
so much sleet and snow driving down those straits,
that he was compelled to return. And he asserted,
that if he had kept close to the coast of Tartary,
on the right hand, and had run along it to the
eastward, to the opening of Anian, between the
land of Asia and America, he might have suc-
ceeded in his undertaking."
*
"And this pilot further said, that the Dutch
would not abandon the attempt until they should
accomplish their object, on account of the great
importance they attached to this route.”
"And the English have already attempted to
discover this route towards the west, between the
islands of Grotland (Greenland) and the land of
Labrador; but on account of the same difficulties
* Couto must have mistaken the jesuits, or the jesuits Adams,
in relating this part of the story, as the latter well knew there
could be no night for upwards of four months in such a latitude.
From a want of making due allowance for the extraordinary
refraction in high latitudes, most of the old navigators have
carried Spitzbergen a full degree higher than it is.
1596.
163
WILLIAM ADAMS.
they have returned, as did that great navigator
Gavot (Cabot) more than forty years ago.
.*
""
"And on a globe which this English pilot had,
(of which a copy was made in China,) these two
routes, by which they attempted to pass, are dis-
tinctly seen ;* and also, in their proper latitudes,
the islands of Japan, with all their kingdoms, even
to the land of Chincungu, where the rich silver
mines are said to be."
"This pilot added, that when the Prince of
Orange found that he could not effect the
passage
by those northern regions, he equipped the fifteen
ships, along with which he had sailed.Ӡ
It may be observed, that Couto resided in India
upwards of forty years, and there wrote his
Decadas; he could therefore know nothing more
of the attempts to discover a northern passage to
India than what he heard from report.
* We have seen that the track of Davis was laid down on the
globes made by Emery Mullineux, many years before Adams
left England.
+ Diogo de Couto, Decad. xii. Chap. 2.
M 2
( 164 )
CHAPTER III.
VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY IN THE NORTHERN
REGIONS DURING THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
George Weymouth
-John Knight
James Hall, 1st, 2d, and 3d Voyages
Henry Hudson, 1st, 2d, 3d, and 4th
Voyages-Sir Thomas Button-James Hall, 4th Voyage
-Captain Gibbons - Robert Bylot-Bylot and Baffin
-Voyages of a mixt character between 1603 and 1615
-Jens Munk-Luke Fox-Thomas James-Zachary
Gillam-Wood and Flawes.
<
GEORGE WEYMOUTH. 1602.
SEVERAL years had passed away without any new
attempt being made, on the part of the maritime
nations of Europe, to discover a nearer passage
by the north to India and China. The English,
however, could not see with indifference a lucra-
tive commerce carried on with the eastern world by
the Spaniards and Portugueze without endeavour-
ing to enjoy a participation thereof. The successful
expeditions of Sir Francis Drake in 1578, and of
Candish in 1586, had sufficiently proved to the
nation the great value of oriental commerce. The
several attempts to establish a share of that com-
merce by a shorter route than those of the Cape of
Good Hope or Cape Horn having failed, the mer-
A
1602.
165
DISCOVERIES OF WEYMOUTH.
1
chants of London determined to try their fortune by
the former of these known passages; not, however,
so much with the view of forming a legitimate
trade with the natives of the East, as of obtaining
wealth by the more cheap and expeditious mode
of plundering the Portugueze. With this design,
Captain George Raymond, having fitted out a
ship of his own called the Penelope, and accom-
panied by two others, the Merchant-Royal and
Edward Bonaventure, set sail in 1591 for the East
Indies. The voyage, however, was most disastrous.
The Royal-Merchant returned from the Cape full
of sick men. The Penelope had scarcely doubled
the Cape when she was lost; and the Edward
Bonaventure, commanded by Captain James Lan-
caster, after an unsuccessful voyage, was lost on
her return, in the West Indies. But Lancaster
sent home, or is supposed to have sent home, a
piece of information, which gave a new stimulus
to northern discovery. In a postscript to one of
his letters, he says, "The passage to the Indies is
in the north-west of America, in 62° 30′ north.'
But this postscript, then believed to be genuine,
has since been supposed to be an interpolation.*
It served, however, to revive the hopes of the
mercantile part of the nation; and, in 1602, the
worshipful merchants of the Muscovy and Tur-
key Companies fitted out, at their joint expense,
...
*
Burney's Voyages and Discoveries.
#
M 3
166
1602.
DISCOVERIES 1
OF
?
an expedition intended solely for the discovery of
a north-west passage towards China. It consisted
of two fly-boats, the one of seventy tons, named
the Discovery; the other of sixty tons, called the
Godspeed-the two carrying five and thirty men
and boys, and victualled for eighteen months.
The command of the expedition was entrusted to
Captain GEORGE WEYMOUTH, who, for the better
success of the voyage, as he tells us, was provided
with "a great traveller and learned minister, one
master John Cartwright."
وو
They departed from Radcliffe on the 2d May,
1602. On the 18th June, in lat. 59° 51′ N. they
fell in with the first island of ice, stretching to the
northward beyond the reach of sight; and on the
same day saw the south part of Greenland. In
standing to the westward the sea was perfectly
smooth, but the water so black, "and as thicke as
puddle," that they conceived it to be very shallow;
on heaving the lead, however, "they could fetch
no ground with one hundred and twenty fathoms."
On the 28th they saw land in lat. 62° 30′ which
they thought to be the land of America, but it was
only Warwick's Forland on Resolution island. In
proceeding to the westward they passed several
banks of ice, and again fell in with black water,
occasioned probably by the soil which the ice-
bergs frequently bring away in their disruption
from the land. Again they supposed that they
discovered America in lat. 63° 33', but they could
1
1
1602.
167
GEORGE WEYMOUTH.
I
not approach it on account of the vast quantity
of ice which encircled the shore. Proceeding
to the north-west they passed four islands of
ice "of a huge bignesse;" the fog became so
thick that they could not see two ships' lengths
from them, and the sails, ropes, and tackle, were
frozen so stiff that they were unable to handle
them. The thick fog is represented to have frozen
as fast as it fell, in the middle of July, and the
stiffness of the ropes and sails made them useless.
On the 19th of this month, the crews conspired
secretly together, while the captain was asleep, to
bear up for England, and keep him confined to his
cabin, but he discovered the plot in time to pre-
vent it. They stated their reasons in writing,
which were these, "That if they should winter
between 60° and 70° lat., it would be May before
they could attempt any thing, and that by the
1st May the following year they could be in those
latitudes well fitted and fresh from England; but
that they were willing to encounter any danger
in making discovery, either in 60° or 57° of latitude."
And after this, they accordingly, "one and all," bore
up the helme and steered to the southward. The
captain, however, had the resolution to punish the
ringleaders most severely, and only remitted a part
of the punishment at the intercession of Master
Cartwright the preacher, and of the master. Being
near to an island of ice, the boats were sent to load
some of it for fresh water, but as they were break-
M 4
168
1602.
DISCOVERIES OF
ing some of it off," the great island of ice gave a
mightie cracke two or three times, as though it
had been a thunder-clappe; and presently the
island began to overthrow, which was like to have
sunk both our boats."*
An inlet is described in 61° 40′, not much pes-
tered with ice, and forty leagues broad, within
which Weymouth says he sailed a hundred leagues
west and by south, but which we now know must
have been impossible. Indeed the whole account
of Weymouth's proceedings is so confused, that
little or nothing can be drawn from it, except that
he was among the islands to the northward of
Hudson's Strait, and probably those of Cape Chid-
ley; and though he calls every land he fell in with
the "land of America," it is quite clear that he
never came near the American coast, except that
part of it which is known by the name of Labra-
dor, along which he continued to range from the
5th to the 14th July, when he discovers an inlet
in lat. 56°, up which he sailed thirty leagues, en-
tertaining sanguine hopes of a passage through it:
this inlet corresponds with Sleeper's Bay, or Davis's
Inlet. On the 5th August he arrived at Dart-
mouth. †
The voyage of Weymouth was a complete
failure. He reached no higher than lat. 63° 53′;
hee neither discovered," says Luke Fox, "nor
Purchas his Pilgrimes, vol. iii. p. 812.
+ Ibid. p. 814.
1605.
169
JAMES HALL.
named any thing more than Davis, nor had any
sight of Greenland, nor was so farre north; nor
can I conceive he hath added any thing more to
this designe; yet these two, Davis and he, did, I
conceive, light Hudson into his straights.
****
JAMES HALL-First Voyage. 1605.
Hitherto the nation which might be supposed
to be the most interested in prosecuting discoveries
in the arctic seas, along the two coasts of Greenland,
had seen the repeated enterprizes of the English
in those seas with apparent indifference. Roused
at length, however, to a sense of the propriety,
but more so, perhaps, of the importance of northern
discovery, the king of Denmark caused an expe-
dition to be fitted out for exploring Greenland.
It consisted of two ships and a pinnace; one of
which, the Admiral, was called the Frost, of the
burden of thirty or forty lasts, commanded by
John Cunningham, a Scottish gentleman in the
service of the king, and on board of which was
JAMES HALL, an Englishman, acting as principal
pilot the other ship was the Lion, Vice-admiral,
of the same burden, commanded by a Dane; and
the pinnace of twelve lasts was under the com-
mand of John Knight, also an Englishman. The
*North-west Fox, p. 50.
170
1605.
DISCOVERIES OF
whole expedition was placed under the orders of
Admiral Godske Lindenau. They sailed from
Copenhagen on the 2d May, 1605. On the 24th,
being in lat. 59° they expected to have seen Buss
island, and conclude it to be laid down in a
wrong latitude on the charts. On the 30th they
saw the south point of Greenland, which, out
of compliment to the king of Denmark, they
named Cape Christian. To avoid the ice, which
encompassed the shore, they stood to the west-
ward, and fell in with "mighty islands of ice,
being very high, like huge mountains," making a
hideous and wonderful noise; and on one of
them was observed "a huge rocke stone, of the
weight of three hundred pounds or thereabouts."
Finding nothing but ice and fog, from the 1st to
the 10th June, the Lion's people hailed the Ad-
miral, "calling very fearfully, and desiring the pilot
to alter his course, and return homeward." The
alarm spread in the Admiral's ship, and they would
have determined to have put about, had not Cun-
ningham, the captain, protesied he would stand
by Hall," as long as his biood was warme, for the
good of the king's majestie." This pacified them
for a moment, but the next floating island of ice
renewed the terrors of those on board the Lion,
who having fired a piece of ordnance, stood away
to the southward.
On the 12th the Admiral fell in with the coast
of Greenland, and gave the names of Mount Cun-
1605.
171
JAMES HALL.
ningham, Queen Anne, and Queen Sophia's Capes, to
certain portions of the land; and entering a deep
bay, which they called Christian's Fiord, a party
landed and examined some tents of the natives
covered with seal skins; and within, among other
articles, some vessels were observed boiling over a
little lamp, in one of which was found a dog's head
boiled, “so that I persuaded myself," says Hall,
"that they eate dog's flesh." The latitude of the
anchorage was found by observation to be 66° 25′.
The natives presently came off to the ship in their
boats, and bartered whale-bone, seal-skins, morse
teeth and unicorns' horns for nails and pieces of
old iron. But on reaching the shore they began
to hurl stones at the strangers with their slings " in
such sort, that no man could stand upon the
hatches." The Danes, however, succeeded after
some time in dispersing them by the fire of mus-
ketry; but they assembled again in greater force
than ever, having upwards of seventy boats, and
not less than 300 persons on shore. The wind
luckily became easterly, on which the pinnace
steered out to sea, and coasting along the shore to
lat. 69°, they found many goodly sounds, bays,
and rivers, and gave names to divers of them; they
met with much drift-wood, "but whence it
cometh," observes Hall, "I know not." Hall
would have proceeded farther to the northward,
but the people in the pinnace earnestly entreated
him to return, saying that their companions in the
99.
1
172
DISCOVERIES OF JAMES HALL. 1605.
Admiral would mutiny and leave them behind,
which in fact they had nearly done. They found,
on their return, that the people of the ship had
been engaged in fight with the natives, of whom
several were slain and three taken prisoners.
Before they departed from Frost Sound they
turned on shore two Danish malefactors, whom
they had brought out for that purpose by order of
the Court, with certain necessaries; "and thus,"
says Hall, "having committed both the one and
the other to God we set saile homewards." They
passed down Davis's Strait with a rapid current
in their favour, and anchored on the 10th August
off the castle of Elsineur.
It would seem that the ship, in which Lindenau
was, stood away to the east coast of Greenland; or
rather, it may be suspected, to the south, some-
where about Cape Farewell, where he was visited
by a number of the "savages," as they are called,
though very far from deserving that appellation.
Wine, it is said, was offered to them, and not being
to their taste was refused; but they drank with
great avidity whole mugs of whale oil. The Ad--
miral most unwarrantably seized two of the natives,
and carried them off to Denmark; and it is said:
that those brought by Hall differed very much
from those brought by Lindenau, in manners,
language and appearance, the former being much
superior in every respect.
*
* Relation du Groenland par M. de la Peyrère. 1657.
( 173 )
JAMES HALL-Second and Third Voyages.
1606 & 1607.
The Danish government, resolving to follow up
the further discovery of Greenland, caused four
ships and a pinnace to be fitted out the next year
for this purpose, and James Hall was appointed
pilot-major of the fleet. Two of the ships, the Frost
and the Lion, were the same as those employed
the preceding year, and commanded by the same
officers; the third was the Eagle, of one hundred
tons; the fourth the Gilliflower, of forty tons; and
the pinnace of twelve tons was called the Cat.
The same admiral, Lindenau, was appointed to
command this second expedition, and the three
natives carried off by Cunningham were put on
board to serve as interpreters and guides.
On the 29th May, 1606, the fleet sailed from
Elsineur, and before they reached the northern
shore of Labrador, about Cape Chidley, as it would
appear, though no name is mentioned, two of the
captive Greenlanders died. From hence they stood
north-westerly towards the coast of Greenland,
and about 63° 45′ found themselves encompassed
with "mightie bankes of ice," which with great
difficulty they got clear of. Having reached the
latitude 64°, they saw land, which they supposed
to be part of the coast of America, but which was
probably the land to the northward of Frobisher's
strait, the ships having been set over by a strong
174
1606.
DISCOVERIES OF
westerly current. On the 25th they had sight
of Greenland, about ten leagues to the south of
Queen Anne's Cape, the Frost having on the
preceding day been separated from the Lion and
the Gilliflower. They put into Cunningham's
Fiord, where, it seems, they had found a silver
mine the year before, of which ore they had
sworn to his Majesty to bring home a sufficient
quantity; accordingly "they all landed to see the
silver myne, where," says Hall, "it was decreed that
we should take in as much thereof as we could."
This, in fact, appears to have been the grand object
of the extensive equipment furnished by the King
of Denmark: it was the discovery of gold and
silver, and not of the lost colonies, that actuated
the framers of an expedition on a scale unneces-
sarily large for the purposes of scientific disco-
very; for in fact no search nor even mention is
made either of a north-west passage or of the
old colonies of Greenland. They rowed in their
boats up the sound, passing many green and
pleasant islands,” and after some days came to the
mouth of a river which they named after the
pilot of the Eagle, Fos river; the latitude of
which is 66° 25'. On the bank of this river was
situated the winter village of the natives, consist-
ing of about forty houses "builded with whales'
bones, the balkes being of whales' ribbes; the
tops were covered with earth, and they had certaine
vaults or sellers under the earth foure square,
about two yards deepe in the ground." In the
1
1
1606.
175
JAMES HALL.
burying place they observed the bodies wrapt in
seal skins, "and stones laid in manner of a coffin
over them." Here they seized five natives, to
carry with them to Denmark, in lieu of whom
they put on shore an unfortunate Dane to be
left behind for having committed some crime
which is not specified. They learned from their
new captives that the country was named Seca-
nunga, and that the great King, who lived in the
interior, was carried upon men's shoulders.
It was now the 10th August, the weather
began to be very stormy, and, finding themselves
exceedingly hampered among the numerous islands
and rocks and floating ice, they resolved to return
to the southward, and after a long passage arrived
in Copenhagen roads on the 4th October.
This fruitless expedition, it seems, was followed
up by another the next year, equally fruitless. It
consisted of two ships, the command of which
was entrusted to a Danish captain of the name
of Karsten Richardisen, a native of Holstein, who
engaged some sailors from Norway and Iceland,
as best acquainted with navigation among ice; but
they proceeded no farther than Cape Farewell, as
the Danish chronicle says, from mountains of ice
obstructing their passage; but Hall gives a more
probable reason. "I have also," says Purchas,
"Master Hall's voyage of the next yeere 1607, to
Greenland from Denmarke, written, and with
representations of land-sights, curiously delineated
1
176
1606.
DISCOVERIES OF
1
by Josias Hubert of Hull, but the Danes (envious
perhaps that the glory of the discovery would be
attributed to the English pilot) after the land
saluted, mutinied, and in fine forced the ship to
returne to Island. For which cause I have here
omitted the whole."*
Peyrere gives from the Danish chronicle a long
account of the treatment and behaviour of the
Greenlanders in Denmark; of the feats they
performed on the water with their canoes; of their
manner of feeding on raw flesh and fish; and their
fixed melancholy and pining away till they finally
died of grief.†
JOHN KNIGHT. 1606.
While the King of Denmark was setting forth
his second grand expedition for exploring "the
myne of silver," and in the hope of filling his
coffers with that precious metal, "the worshipfull
Companies of Muscovey and the East India Mer-
chants" were fitting out a small bark of forty tons,
called the Hopewell, for the discovery of the north-
west passage, under the direction of the same JOHN
KNIGHT who had been master of the pinnace in
the first Danish expedition. He left Gravesend
* Purchas, vol. iii. p. 827.
+ Relation du Groenland par Peyrère, p. 180.
1606.
177
JOHN KNIGHT,
on the 18th April 1606, and after a long and
tedious passage, destitute of any incident worth
noticing, on the 18th June descried the land of
America, rising like eight islands, in latitude 56°
48′ (about Cape Grimington, on the coast of
Labrador.) Here a northerly gale came on,
which brought down such vast quantities of ice,
that the little bark, being surrounded with it, lost
her rudder, and Knight found it expedient to haul
her close into the bottom of the cove, in order to
save the clothes and other articles belonging to
the crew, the ship's stores and the provisions.
Knight then, with the mate and four others, went
on shore well armed, to endeavour to find out some
more convenient place for repairing the damage
which their ship had sustained. Ön landing,
Knight, the mate, and his brother, with one of the
crew, went up towards the highest part of the
island, leaving two of the people to take care of
the boat; these men waited in vain for their return
from ten in the morning till eleven at night. The
next day, a party well armed went in search of
their unfortunate captain and his companions, but
they were unable to reach the island on account
of the ice. From this time no tidings were heard
of the little party, and it was then concluded that
they had been intercepted and slain by the savage
natives, as these people came down afterwards and
attacked the remainder of the crew with great
ferocity, shooting their arrows and pursuing them
VOL. I.
N
178
1607.
DISCOVERIES OF
in all directions. They had very large boats, full
of men, and the narrator thus describes their
appearance:-" As farre as we could judge, they
very little people, tawnie coloured, thin or no
beards, and flat nosed, and man eaters."
be
They now set about repairing their vessel, and
after great exertion partially stopped the leak
and succeeded in hanging the rudder; but on
getting to sea, out of the ice, they found it neces-
sary to keep the pump constantly going. They
steered, with a rapid current in their favour, for
Newfoundland, and after much suffering and
fatigue reached Fogo on the 23d of July. They
remained here, refitting and refreshing for about a
month, after which they set sail on the 22d of
August, and on the 24th of September landed at
Dartmouth.*
HENRY HUDSON-First Voyage. 1607.
The unfortunate issue of Captain Knight's voy-
age does not appear to have in the least discou-
raged the merchants of London from persevering
in the attempt to discover a nearer passage to Japan
and China; but as hitherto neither the north-east
nor the north-west had held out much hope of suc-
cess, it was now resolved to try a new route, and
to see what could be done by holding a course
towards the north pole. For this enterprize they
Purchas his Pilgrimes, vol. iii. p. 827.
1607.
179
HENRY HUDSON.
selected HENRY HUDSON, an experienced and
intrepid seaman, well skilled in the theory as
well as practice of navigation, and in the use
of nautical instruments. It deserves to be re-
marked that he is the first of the northern navi-
gators, and probably the first Englishman, who
made observations on the inclination or dip of the
magnetic needle. This adventurous navigator,
with ten men and a boy, in a small bark, whose
name and tonnage have not been left on record,
set sail from Gravesend on the 1st of May, 1607.
On the 13th of June Hudson fell in with land
a-head and some ice; the weather became foggy,
and the sails and shrowds were frozen. The land
was high and the upper part covered with snow,
but being several days without an observation,
Hudson was doubtful whether it was an island or
part of Greenland. He reckoned his latitude to
be then about 70°, and gave to a headland about
that parallel the name of Young's Cape, and to a
high mount, like a round castle near it, that of the
Mount of God's Mercy. This land was evidently
that jutting part of the east coast of Greenland
which lies to the northward of Iceland.
On the 22d he was, by observation, in lat.
72° 38′ N., and, on the weather clearing up, he
found himself about twelve leagues from the land.
"It was a mayne high land, nothing at all covered
with snow; and the north part of that mayne high
land was very high mountaynes, but we could see
N 2
180
1607.
DISCOVERIES OF
-
no snow on them." "It may be objected against us
as a fault," continues Hudson, "for hauling so
westerly a course. The chiefe cause that moved
us thereunto, was our desire to see that part of
Groneland which (for ought that we knew) was to
any Christian unknowne; and we thought it
might as well have beene open sea as land, and by
that means our passage should have beene the
larger to the pole." This land lying in lat. 73°
he named Hold with Hope.
Hudson observes that this headland, unlike that
of Young's Cape, had little or no snow on it, and
the air, on their approach to it, was very temperate
to their feeling; the rain fell in great drops, like
the thunder showers in England. From this part
of the east coast of Greenland, so seldom ap-
proached, he continued to steer away to the north-
east in the hope of falling in with the body
of Newland, the name given by the Dutch to
Spitzbergen; and accordingly, on the 27th, they
made this land, then nearly covered with fog, the
ice lying very thick along the shore for fifteen or
sixteen leagues. They reckoned themselves to be
in 78° and near to Vogel Hoek; and it is remarked,
that in running along near to the shore they found
no great cold, yet there was great store of ice to
the westward, which obliged them to stand to the
southward between the land and the ice.
On the 1st of July they were embayed in the
ice, and, by observation, it appeared they were
1607.
181
HENRY HUDSON.
then in 78° 42', which made Hudson conclude they
were opposite the great Indraught, into which he
afterwards entered very far, finding no bottom,
with one hundred fathoms.* The next day they
observed in 78° 56', and on the 3d in 78° 33'. On
the 4th, the wind being at north, it was very cold,
and the shrowds and sails were frozen; and on the
5th they returned to the mouth of the inlet. Hav-
ing sailed about in different courses to get free from
the ice, with which the little vessel was fre-
quently beset, they had an observation on the
11th, which gave the lat. 79° 17'. Among the
ice was much drift-wood. They saw plenty of
seals, and some bears, one of which was killed, and
many of the people made themselves sick with
eating bear's flesh, unsalted.
It was Hudson's intention to cross over from
hence and pass round the southern extremity of
the land called Newland, or Spitzbergen ;† but the
wind being south, and coming into a green sea,
which he states to be always freest of ice, whereas
a blue sea is always most pestered with ice, he
stood to the northward, and in 80° 23′ saw the
land to the southward. They entered a deep bay,
*This was the deep fiord or firth within Charles Foreland,
† Among the numerous blunders of Forster is that of ascribing
the honour of the discovery of Spitzbergen to belong to Hudson;
forgetting that in his own volume he had observed that "Hudson
saw Spitzbergen in 1607, which had been discovered eleven years
before by the Dutch"!-Voy, and Dis. in the North, p. 421.
1
N 3
182
1607.
DISCOVERIES OF
or sound, at the bottom of which the mate and
boatswain went on shore, where they found a pair of
morses' teeth, whale bones, deer's horns and the foot-
marks of other beasts; they also met with much
drift-wood and streams of fresh water. "Here
they found it hot on shoore, and drunke water to
coole their thirst, which they also commended."
Hudson made the northernmost part of the land
then in sight to be in about 81° N. latitude; but
on attempting to sail farther north he saw more
land joining to the same, "trending north in our
sight, by meanes of the cleernesse of the weather,
stretching farre into 82 degrees; and by the
bowing or shewing of the skie much farther."
This must either be a mistake, or he stood over so
far to the west as to have fallen in again with
Greenland extending to this latitude, which would
rather seem to be the case, as he some time after-
wards mentions, from an "icy skie and neerenesse
to Groneland, there is no passage that way; which,
if there had beene, I meant to have made my
returne by the north of Groneland to Davis his
Streights, and so for England." It might, how-
ever, have been the ice-blink that deceived him,
which was then not so easily, as it now is, dis-
tinguished from what is called the land-blink.
On the 31st of July, being in want of all man-
ner of necessaries, the weather thick and foggy,
and the season being too far advanced to make
further discovery that year, Hudson bore up in his
1608.
183
HENRY HUDSON.
little bark for his return home, and passing Bear
or Cherry Island arrived safely in the Thames on
the 15th of September.*
HENRY HUDSON-Second Voyage. 1608.
Being baffled by the ice in his attempt to pass
to the northward of Spitzbergen, HUDSON was now
directed to try his success in the discovery of a
north-east passage to the East Indies. His crew, on
this second voyage, was increased to fourteen men.
On the 22d of April he dropped down the river,
and on the 3d of June got sight of the North
Cape; and it is deserving of remark, that, in the
course of this passage, he made three observations
with a dipping-needle, which he calls the incli-
natory; the first in lat. 64° 52′ gave 81° of incli-
nation; in lat. 67° it was 82°; and in lat. 69° 40′
the needle inclined 84°. Having stood to the north-
east till he reached the lat. 74° 30' the inclination
of the needle was found to be 86°. In 75° 29′
Hudson first fell in with the ice and attempted to
pass through it, but found it so thick and firm
after proceeding four or five leagues, that it was
thought prudent to return, which was effected
with a few rubs of the ship against the ice. From
the 9th to the 15th of June little progress was
made on account of the ice and fog. On the
* Purchas, vol. iii. p. 574.
N 4
184
1609.
DISCOVERIES OF
latter day, being then in lat. 75° 7', "one of our
company, (says Hudson,) looking over boord saw a
mermaid, and calling up some of the companie to
see her one more came up, and by that time shee
was come close to the ship's side, looking earnestly
on the men: a little after a sea came and over-
turned her; from the navil upwards her backe
and breasts were like a woman's, (as they say that
saw her,) her body as big as one of us; her skin
very white, and long haire hanging downe behind,
of colour blacke; in her going downe they saw
her tayle, which was like the tayle of a porposse,
and speeckled like a macrell. Their names that
saw her were Thomas Hilles and Robert Rayner."
On the 19th of June, in lat. 75° 22′, Hudson
made an observation with the dipping needle,
which, if at all correct, or nearly so, would lead to
a conclusion that one of the magnetic poles was
then at no great distance from this parallel, some-
where between Cherry Island and Nova Zembla ;
but even now, with all the modern improvements
which philosophical instruments have undergone,
very little dependence can be placed on observa-
tions made at sea, on account of the ship's motion,
for the inclination of the magnetic needle. On
the 25th, it is stated, that "the hope of a passage
was gone this way by meanes of our nearenesse
to Nova Zembla and the abundance of ice." They
landed on Nova Zembla in about lat. 72° 12′, and
* Purchas, vol. iii. p. 575.
1608.
185
HENRY HUDSON.
found whalebone and deer's horns, and the party
brought on board two dozen of fowl and some eggs.
The sea was full of morses, whales and seals.
Finding little hope of a passage between New-
land (Spitzbergen) and Nova Zembla, " my pur-
pose," says Hudson, "was by the Waygats to
passe by the mouth of the river Ob, and to double
that way the North Cape of Tartaria, or to give
reason wherefore it will not be." The quantity of
morses, however, induced him to hope that they
might defray the charge of the voyage; in the
meantime a party was sent up a large river flowing
from the north-eastward, to see if a passage could
not be found that way into a more easterly sea;
but having traced it to one fathom in depth they
returned. 66
Generally," says Hudson, "all the
land of Nova Zembla that yet wee have seene, is
to a man's eye a pleasant land; much mayne high
land with no snow on it, looking in some places
greene, and deere* feeding thereon; and the hills
are partly covered with snow and partly bare."
He adds, "it is no marvell that there is so much
ice in the sea toward the pole, so many sounds and
rivers being in the lands of Nova Zembla and
Newland to ingender it; besides the coasts of
Pechora, Russia and Groenland, with Lappia, as
by proofes I finde by my travell in these parts; by
meanes of which ice I suppose there will be no
navigable passage this way." He therefore stood
* Hudson is the only navigator that mentions deer on Nova
Zembla; and he was probably mistaken.
186
1609.
DISCOVERIES OF
to the westward, " being out of hope to find pas-
sage by the north-east," and on the 26th of August
arrived at Gravesend.*
HENRY HUDSON--Third Voyage. 1609.
The Merchant-adventurers who had set forth
the two preceding voyages appear now to have
given up all hope of finding a passage either by
the north pole or the north-east: but HUDSON was
probably more sanguine in his expectations; for
we again find him employed by the Dutch in
another voyage of discovery. The account of
this voyage is written by Robert Ivet of Lime-
house, is very long, and very uninteresting, at
least in so far as it relates to northern discovery.
In fact, one scarcely can form any notion, from
the perusal of it, what could originally have been
its principal object. He first doubles the North
Cape, as if proceeding in quest of a north-east
passage; but presently, without any reason being
assigned, we find him turning back to the west-
ward, passing the Feroe islands, and proceeding
to Newfoundland; from thence he directs his
course down the coast of America, as far as
Charlestown, then back again to Cape Cod; and,
finally, discovered Hudson's river, which he enters,
and on which the Dutch afterwards founded a
settlement.
* Purchas, vol. iii. p. 581.
1610.
187
HENRY HUDSON.
HENRY HUDSON--Fourth Voyage. 1610.
Once more the public attention of the British
nation is again turned to the north-westward.
Sir John Wolstenholm, Sir Dudley Digges, and
some others, were so thoroughly persuaded of the
existence of a north-west passage, that they fitted
out a vessel at their own expense, and gave the
command of her to HENRY HUDSON, whose cha-
racter had long been established as an experienced
and enterprizing seaman.
Of this voyage, which terminated so fatally to
the brave commander, we have only a very meagre
account, at least of that part of it which is said to
have been written by Hudson himself; enough, how-
ever, to shew that he passed through the strait into
the mediterranean sea, improperly enough called a
bay, both of which bear his name. The ship appro-
priated for this service was the Discovery, of 55
tons, victualled only, as it would appear, for six
months. She left the river on the 17th April, 1610,
and on the 9th June arrived off the entrance of Fro-
bisher's Strait; but, on account of the ice and con-
trary winds, was compelled to ply to the westward
for nearly a month, when on the 6thJuly she reached
some rocks and islands, which Hudson named the
Isles of God's mercies. Still plying to the west-
ward, Hudson observed more land, in latitude 61°
24', to which he gave the name of Hold with Hope.
188
1610.
DISCOVERIES OF
On the 25th more land was seen, and named
Magna Britannia, the ship being then in about
621°. On the 2d August they had sight of a fair
headland, to which was given the name of Salis-
bury's Foreland; and sailing from thence west-
south-west fourteen leagues, and then seven
leagues farther, they found themselves in the
mouth of a great strait, in which they had no bot-
tom at one hundred fathoms. This strait is formed
by the north-west point of Labrador, which was
named by Hudson Cape Wolstenholm, and a
cluster of islands to the north-westward of it, the
nearest headland of which he named Cape Digges.
From hence the land was found to trend to the
southward, and a large sea opened out:- here
Hudson's brief remarks end, and the account of
the remaining part of this unfortunate voyage is
given by one Abacuk Pricket, on whose narrative
very little dependence ought, perhaps, to be placed;
as to the discoveries made after Hudson's death it is
perfectly useless. He scarcely gives a date, dis-
tance, or latitude, and his account of the mutinous
proceedings of the crew must be received with
caution, and, indeed, creates no little suspicion as
to its veracity, from his connection with the muti-
neers, and his being permitted to remain with them
in the ship.
Such as it is, however, it furnishes an awful
example of the wretched condition to which
mutiny and disobedience to lawful command on
1610.
189
HENRY HUDSON.
board a ship at sea, never fail to bring the unhappy
men who are guilty of this crime.
Pricket says, that Hudson, being beset with ice,
and almost despairing whether he should ever get
free from it, brought out his card and shewed the
ship's company that he had entered the strait
above a hundred leagues farther than any English-
man had been before, and therefore left it to their
choice whether they were disposed to proceed; on
which some were of one mind and some of
another, some wishing themselves at home, and
some not caring where they were if once out of
the ice; but, he adds, "there were some who then
spake words which were remembered a great while
after."
The first appearance of the mutiny is stated to
have been produced by Hudson displacing the
mate and boatswain, "for words spoken when in
the ice," and appointing others. Proceeding to
the south they entered a bay on Michaelmas day,
and gave it that name, and here it would seem the
discontent was increased by the master insisting to
weigh the anchor while the rest were desirous of
remaining there. Having spent three months "in
a labyrinth without end," they at length found a
place on the 1st November, where they hauled the
ship aground, and on the 10th were frozen in.
About the middle of the month John Williams,
the gunner, died; on which occasion Pricket
ejaculates, "God pardon the master's uncharitable
190
1610.
DISCOVERIES OF
dealing with this man!" And now we are let
into Abacuk's story of the conspiracy.
Henry Hudson had taken into his house in
London a young man of the name of Greene, of
good and respectable parents, but an abandoned pro-
fligate, whom he carried with him to sea "because
he could write well," though in all probability from
the more humane motive of saving him from ruin.
This person quarrelled with the surgeon and others
of the crew. Pricket speaks favourably of his
"manhood;" "but for religion, he would say, he
was cleane paper, whereon he might write what
hee would." Having thus got rid of every reli-
gious feeling, it follows, of course, that no moral
tie could bind him, and he soon began to conspire
against his benefactor. The provisions growing
short increased the discontent of the crew; but
for the first three months this part of the country
abounded with such covies of milk-white par-
tridges, that they killed above a hundred dozen,
besides others of different sorts; and when the
partridges left them in the spring, their place was
supplied with swans, geese, ducks, and teals, but
all of them difficult to procure; so difficult, he
tells us, that they were reduced to eat the moss
and frogs; but the ice breaking up, seven men
were sent out in the boat, and returned the first
day with five hundred fish as big as good herrings,
and some trouts; this supply, however, soon
failed them.
1610.
191
HENRY HUDSON.
Hudson now began to make preparations for
leaving the bay in which they had wintered;
previous to which he delivered out all the bread,
being a pound to each man for about a fortnight,
"and he wept when he gave it unto them."
They had five cheeses, which were also divided
among them, and which afforded three pounds and
a half for seven days. They then stood to the north-
west, and on the 18th June fell in with ice, and
on the 21st, being still in the ice, Wilson the boat-
swain and Greene came to Pricket, who was lying
lame in his cabin, and told him that they and the
rest of their associates meant to turn the master
and all the sick into the boat, and leave them to
shift for themselves; that there was not fourteen
days' victuals left for the whole crew; that they
had not eaten any thing the last three days, and
were therefore resolved" either to mend or end;
and what they had begun they would go through
with it or die." Pricket of course says he dis-
suaded them from their horrid design, but that
Greene bad him to hold his tongue, for he knew
the worst, and he would rather be hanged at home
than starved abroad. Presently came five or six
others to Pricket's cabin, where the following oath
was administered to each of the conspirators:
"You shall swear truth to God, your prince, and
country; you shall do nothing but to the glory of
God and the good of the action in hand, and harm
to no man:" and so it very soon appeared; for, on
192
1610.
DISCOVERIES OF
1
Hudson's coming out of his cabin, they seized and
bound his arms behind him; and on his asking
them what they meant, they told him he should
know when he was in the boat.
The boat was accordingly hauled along side,
"and the poore sicke and lame men were called
upon to get them out of their cabbins into the
shallop." Immediately the Captain, his son, and
seven others were driven into the boat; and a
fowling piece, some powder and shot, a few pikes,
an iron pot, a little meal, and some other articles,
thrown in at the same time. The mutineers then
cut the tow rope and let her go adrift among the
ice, where she was left with these unfortunate
men, in a situation which cannot be contemplated
without horror, and a feeling of deep indignation
at the brutal perpetrators of this most atrocious
act; and most of all, at the base ingratitude of the
wretch who had been fed, clothed, and rescued
from ruin by Hudson.
As soon as the boat was out of sight, Pricket
says Greene came to him and told him that it was
the will of the ship's company that he (Pricket)
should go up into the master's cabin, and take
charge of it, which, after some reluctance, he tells
us he did. The first dispute among the people was,
which way they should steer, one being for stand-
ing to the north-west, and another to the north-
east; however they were soon beset in the ice,
where they remained shut up for fourteen days;
and when at length they escaped from the ice,
1611.
193
HENRY HUDSON.
their provisions were all gone, but they reached
some islands on which they gathered cockle-grass
to eat. They now began to talk among them-
selves that England would be no safe place for
them, "and Henry Greene swore the shippe
should not come into any place, but keep the sea
still, till he had the king's majestie's hand and
seale to shew for his safety;" and this Greene at
length became their captain.
On the 27th July they reached some island
near Cape Digges, at the western extremity of
Hudson's Strait, where they got some gulls to
feed upon, and some cockle-grass; and here they
met with a great number of savages, with whom
at first they were on friendly terms, but a quarrel
soon ensued, in which Greene was killed, and three
died of the wounds they had received in the
scuffle. Pricket, after fighting manfully, by his
own account, was also severely wounded-" and
thus," he says, " you have heard the tragicall end
of Henry Greene and his mates, whom they
called Captaine; these four being the only lustie
men in all the ship:" the survivors, says Purchas,
were now in the most dreadful plight; provisions
nearly gone, and themselves cut off from the only
spot on which they had calculated on procuring a
supply of sea fowl. They contrived, however,
to procure about three hundred of these fowls.
They now stood to the westward, and endeavoured
to shape their course for Ireland. They had a
VOL. I.
194
1611.
DISCOVERIES OF
1
little meal left, and with this and half a sea fowl
a day to each man, they made a kind of pottage.
"We had flayed our fowle, for they will not pull;
and Robert Ivet was the first to make use of the
skins by burning off the feathers; so they became
a great dish of meate, and as for the garbidge, it
was not throwne away". "at length was all
our meate spent, and our fowle restie and dry;
but being no remedy, we were content with the
salt broth for dinner, and the halfe fowle for sup-
per." Nor was this the worst; they were com-
pelled at last to eat their candles, and to fry the
skins and crushed bones of the fowl in candle-
grease, which, with a little vinegar, is stated to
have made "a good dish of meate." Just before
they reached the land, and the last of their fowls
was in the steep-tub, Robert Ivet, whom Hudson
is said to have displaced as mate, and next to
Greene the chief mutineer, died for sheer want.
They were now in the bay of Galloway, where
they met with a Fowey fishing-smack, the people
of which agreed, for a certain sum, to carry them
into Plymouth.*
Such is the substance of Abacuk Pricket's nar-
rative; and meagre and suspicious as it is, the
most remarkable circumstance is that it appeared
satisfactory in England; at least no further in-
quiry seems to have been made into the most in-
Purchas his Pilgrimes, vol. iii. p. 596.
1611.
195
HENRY HUDSON.
human and atrocious act that had been committed.
Pricket, it is true, had disposed of the principal
mutineers, and no doubt himself and those few
who returned home made it out that they were
compelled to enter into the conspiracy, or at least
to remain neutral. It is to be remarked that the
part of Hudson's Journal which they brought home
terminates on the 3d August, 1810, when between
the Capes Wolstenholme and Digges, but Hudson
was not seized and thrust into the boat till the
21st June, 1811. Is it not then very surprizing
that no inquiry should have been made for the
master's journal during this long period? Pricket
was the very person to have been made account-
able, for he admits that he took charge of the
master's cabin, and that Greene gave him the key
of the master's chest. A shrewd navigator, com-
menting on the transactions of this voyage, says,
"Well, Pricket, I am in great doubt of thy fidelity
to Master Hudson."*
SIR THOMAS BUTTON. 1612.
The moral character of Abacuk Pricket, and of
Robert Bylot, would not seem to have suffered very
greatly in the eyes of the Merchant-Adventurers,
* North-west Fox, p. 117.
o 2
1
196
1612.
DISCOVERIES OF
d
on account of the unhappy catastrophe which befel
Hudson; and it may therefore be presumed that
they substantiated by proof their innocence of all
participation in that atrocious transaction. We find,
at least, that both were engaged to proceed on the
same voyage the following year, under the command
of CAPTAIN (afterwards SIR THOMAS) BUTTON, a
gentleman then in the service of Prince Henry, an
able seaman, and a man of very considerable talent.
The two ships fitted out for this new voyage of
discovery bore the same names as those under the
celebrated Cook, when employed on the same
service, but on the opposite side of America-the
Resolution and the Discovery; the former of
which was commanded by Sir Thomas, the latter
by Captain Ingram. Sir Thomas Button had
with him besides, on this voyage of discovery, a
relation of the name of Gibbons, and one Captain
Hawkridge, both volunteers, and men of reputed
skill and experience. The two ships, being in all
respects ready for sea and victualled for eighteen
months, took their departure early in May 1612.
For reasons that one cannot well comprehend,
the voyage of Sir Thomas Button was never
published, either by himself or by any competent
authority; a sort of mysterious secrecy being kept
up, though several details, collected from different
persons employed on it, and from verbal informa-
tion, as well as some abstracts said to be taken
from Button's own journal by Sir Thomas Roe,
F
1612.
197
SIR THOMAS BUTTON.
were some years afterwards printed by Fox, in the
introductory part of his own voyage.
The opening of Hudson's Strait into a great
western sea, and the report in Abacuk Pricket's
journal of Hudson's ship having been floated off a
rock near Cape Digges, by a high tide flowing
from the westward, are the reasons assigned for
undertaking this new voyage of discovery. It is
to be hoped however, that humanity had some
share in the business, and that one of the objects
of the expedition might be that of inquiring after
the fate of the unfortunate Hudson and his com-
panions. The intention at any rate was to follow
the track of Hudson; and accordingly, on arriving off
the strait, Button stood directly to the westward, for
Digges's Island, where he remained about a week
employed in fitting up a pinnace which had been
brought out in pieces from England. He then con-
tinued to proceed to the westward, till he made the
southern part of the large island, which in some
charts is called Southampton Island, and to which
he gave the name of Carey's Swan's Nest; and
from hence still sailing westerly he fell in with
more land on the main coast of America, in lat. 60°
40', to which he gave the name of Hopes Checked.
A storm coming on, the two ships stood to the
southward down Hudson's Bay, and on the 15th
August, entered the mouth of a river in lat. 57° 10′,
* North-west Fox, p. 117.
0 3
198
1612.
DISCOVERIES OF
which was named by Button, Nelson's River, so
called from the master of his ship, whom he had the
misfortune to lose, and who was interred at this
place.
The season being far advanced, and Button seeing
it would be expedient to winter here rather than in
a more northerly latitude, his first care was to
secure the two ships against the wind and tides
and the floating ice, which he learned from early
experience might be expected to be still more
troublesome in the course of the winter. Many of
the people died from the severe cold, though the
river was not frozen over till the 16th February.
The weather however was frequently mild, and
Button took advantage of it by employing his
people on shore in killing game. The quantity of
partridges was so abundant and so easily procured,
that they are said to have taken and consumed no
less than eighteen hundred dozen. He also con-
trived, like a wise commander, to keep the crew
employed during their confinement to the ship,
well knowing that the best way of preventing men
from murmuring, discontent, and secret conspira-
cies, was to divert their minds from dwelling on
their own unpleasant situation. To the inferior
officers he put questions concerning the route of
their late navigation, and engaged them in com-
paring each other's observations as to the courses
they had run, the set of the tides, the latitudes of
the places they had touched at; and apparently
1612.
199
SIR THOMAS BUTTON.
(6
consulting them what they should do, and what
course pursue, on the approach of spring. Every
man in the ship by these means felt himself of some
importance, and took an interest in the further
prosecution of the voyage. Among others we find
an answer given by one Josias Hubert, the pilot of
the Resolution, to the question, How the discovery
might be best prosecuted when they should be able
to go to sea? which shews the sound notions enter-
tained by this man respecting the true mode of
searching for the passage, My answer," he says,
"to this demand is, to search to the northward
about this western land until, if it be possible, that
we may find the flood coming from the westward,
and to bend our courses against that flood, following
the ebb, searching that way for the
passage.
For
this flood which we have had from the eastward, I
cannot be persuaded, but that they are the veins of
some head-land to the northward of the Checks, and
by the inlets of rivers which let the flood-tides into
them, which headlands being found, I do assure
myself, that the tide will be found to come from the
westward."
The ice broke up from Nelson's River on the
21st of April, but they did not quit their winter
anchorage till two months afterwards, when they
stood to the northward exploring the eastern coast
of America, conformably. with Hubert's idea, as
high along the land of Southampton Island as 65°.
Proceeding again to the southward Button fell in
1
04
200
1612.
DISCOVERIES OF
with some islands which he named Mancel's Islands,
and which are now marked on the charts as Mans-
field's Islands. To the extreme point of South-
ampton Island, lying to the westward of Carey's
Swan's Nest, he gave the name of Cape Southampton,
and to that on the east of it Cape Pembroke. After
this he passed Cape Chidley, and in sixteen days
reached England in the autumn of 1613.
There seems to have been no reason why the
proceedings of the voyage of Sir Thomas Button
should have been kept secret, or published only
piecemeal. He was the first who reached the
eastern coast of America on the western side of
Hudson's Bay, and discovered Nelson's River,
which has long been the principal settlement of the
Hudson's Bay Company. He was strongly possessed
with the idea of the existence of a north-west pas-
sage; and he told Mr. Briggs, the celebrated mathe-
matician, that he had convinced King James of the
truth of this opinion, which is said to have had so
much influence with the Adventurers as to induce
them to make a further attempt the following year.
JAMES HALL-Fourth Voyage. 1612.
In the same year that Sir Thomas Button sailed
from England, JAMES HALL also made a fourth
voyage, with two small vessels, called the Patience
and Heart's Ease, fitted out by a new set of
1612.
201
JAMES HALL.
merchant-adventurers of London, of whom Mr.
Alderman Cockin appears to have been one of the
principal partners; but it proved fatal to the per-
severing commander of this expedition, who was
mortally wounded by the dart of an Esquimaux
on the coast of Greenland. The little that is
known of this voyage appears to have been written
by William Baffin; and it is chiefly remarkable for
its being the first on record, in which a method is
laid down, as then practised by him, for determining
the longitude at sea by an observation of the
heavenly bodies; and the method he made use of
sufficiently proves that Baffin possessed a very con-
siderable degree of knowledge in the theory as
well as practice of navigation. On an island in
Cockin's Sound he first determined, by various
observations of the sun, both above and below the
pole, an exact meridian line; he says, "on the
9th of July I went on shoare the island, being a
faire morning, and observed till the moone came
just upon the meridian. At which very instant I
observed the sunnes height, and found it 8 degrees
53 minutes north, in the elevation of the pole 65
degrees 20 minutes. By the which, working by
the doctrine of sphericall triangles, having the
three sides given, to wit, the complement of the
pole's elevation; the complement of the Alme-
canter; and the complement of the sunnes decli-
nation; to find out the quantity of the angle at
the pole: I say, by this working, I found it to be
202
1612.
DISCOVERIES OF
foure of the clocke, 17 minutes and 24 seconds.
Which, when I had done, I found by mine ephe-
merides, that the moone came to the meridian at
London that morning at foure of the clocke, 25
minutes, 34 seconds, which 17 minutes, 24 seconds,
subtracted from 25° 34′ leaveth 8° 10' of time,
for the difference of longitude betwixt the meri-
dian of London and the meridian passing by this
place in Groenland. Now the moone's motion
that day was 12 degrees 7 minutes, which con-
verted into minutes of time, were 48 minutes
29 seconds; which, working by the rule of pro-
portion, the worke is thus: if 48 minutes 29
seconds (the time that the moone commeth to the
meridian sooner that day, then she did the day
before) give 360 (the whole circumference of the
earth), what shall 8 minutes 10 seconds give-to
wit, 60 degrees 30 minutes, or neere thereabout;
which is the difference of longitude betweene the
meridian of London and this place in Groenland,
called Cockin's Sound, lying to the westward of
London."*
Baffin admits that the operation is somewhat
difficult and troublesome, and liable to error; yet
the importance of knowing the longitude of places
renders it, in his opinion, highly expedient that
mariners should practise such things; and, he
Purchas, vol. iii. p. 832.
1612.
203
JAMES HALL.
adds, "I know some of the better sort which are
able to work this and the like propositions ex-
actly."
From Cockin's Sound they proceeded towards
the river, "where the supposed myne should be"
-from which expression it may be conjectured
that the object of the present voyage was the dis-
covery of gold and not of the north-west passage.
The weather being stormy, with the wind from the
northward, they put into Ramelsford on the 21st
of July; and here about forty of the savages
came down to barter with them. "At which
time our master, James Hall, being in the boate,
a savage, with his dart, strooke him a deadly
wound upon the right side, which our surgeon did
thinke did peerce his liver. We all mused that he
should strike him, and offer no harme to any of the
rest: unlesse it were, that they knew since he was
there with the Danes; for out of that river they
carried away five of the people, whereof never any
returned againe; and in the next river they killed
a great number."
"All that day he lay very sore
pained, looking for death every houre; and on
Thursday the three and twentieth, about eight of
the clocke in the morning he dyed, being very
penitent for all his former offences."*
Having buried the master they proceeded to the
northward and entered Cunningham's river, where
* Purchas, vol. iii. p. 832.
Uor M
304
1614.
DISCOVERIES OF
they "found divers places where the Danes had
digged; it was a kinde of shining stone, which,
when our goldsmith, James Carlile, had tried, it
was found of no value, and had no mettall at all
in it; but was like unto Muscovie studde, and of a
glittering colour." From hence they proceeded to
Ramelsford, which lies in lat. 67°. Here the new
master, Andrew Barker, and the merchant, Mr.
Wilkinson, and others, held a conference about
returning home; because, since the murder of
Hall, none of the savages would come near to trade
with them as usual. Accordingly, on the 10th of
August, they stood out of the harbour, and on the
17th of September they arrived at Hull.
CAPTAIN GIBBONS. 1614.
The reason assigned for Sir Thomas Button not
following up the attempt to discover the passage,
of the existence of which he was so sanguine, is
the death of his patron, Prince Henry, during his
absence on the first voyage. But the same ship,
the Discovery, which had accompanied the Reso-
lution, was again fitted out and victualled for
twelve months, and the command of her given to
CAPTAIN GIBBONS, the relation and friend of Sir
Thomas Button, who had been with him the pre-
ceding year. The high character given by Sir
Thomas to this officer as a seaman, of whom he
i
1615.
205
CAPTAIN GIBBONS.
does not hesitate to say "that he is not short of
any man that ever yet he carried to sea," had
raised great expectations from this voyage, which,
however, were wofully disappointed. Captain
Gibbons had not proceeded far into Hudson's
Strait before he fell in with the ice, which came
down in such quantities as to hamper him very
considerably. The weather also was boisterous,
cold and foggy, which induced him to turn back.
Some, indeed, are of opinion that he never reached
the Strait, but was driven by the southern current
and the floating ice down the coast of Labrador,
where he took shelter in a bay lying in about 57º,
in which he remained nearly five months, com-
pletely blocked up by the ice. To this spot his
ship's company are said to have given, in derision,
the name of "Gibbon's his hole." Escaping at
length, with considerable damage to his ship, he
made the best of his way home. The bay in
which he was thus caught appears to be that now
called Nain, at the head of which there is an
establishment of Moravian missionaries.
3
ROBERT BYLOT. 1615.
The total failure of Captain Gibbons, notwith-
standing the high character given of him as a sea-
man by Sir Thomas Button, did not discourage the
adventurous merchants from following up the pro-
DorM
206
1615.
DISCOVERIES OF
secution of discoveries in the north-west. They
again fitted out the Discovery for a fourth voyage
towards this quarter. ROBERT BYLETH OF BYLOT,
who had been employed on the three former
voyages, under Hudson, Button and Gibbons, was
now appointed master; and William Baffin, by
whom the account of the voyage is written, his
mate and associate. The crew consisted of four-
teen men and two boys. With these slender
means they left the Thames on the 16th of April,
and saw Greenland on the east side of Cape
Farewell on the 6th of May, from which time to
the 17th, in proceeding westerly, they were much
hampered with ice, and, on that day in parti-
cular, passed many great islands of ice, some of
which are stated to be more than two hundred
feet high above the water. "This," says Baffin,
"I proved by one shortly after, which I found to
be two hundred and forty foot high, and if report
of some men be true, which affirms that there is
but one seventh part of the ice above water, then
the height of that piece of ice, which I observed,
was one hundred and forty fathoms (280 fathoms)
or one thousand sixe hundred and eightie foote
from the top to the bottome."* On the 27th they
* Purchas, vol. iii. p. 837.
Forster, in quoting from Fox, makes a most ridiculous mistake,
and after a learned dissertation on the specific gravity of ice,
concludes that the mass in question must have been 8,400 feet
high;" which," he adds, as well he might, "is, indeed, a most
tremendous height."-Voyages, &c. in the North, p. 361.
1615
207
ROBERT BY LOT.
saw the island of Resolution. On the 31st they
came in sight of Button's Isles, and the next day
stood across and got into a good harbour on the
north-west side of the island of Resolution, whose
longitude was ascertained, by observation, to be
66° 35′ W. from London, and the variation of the
compass 24° 6'′ W. Standing to the northward
they came to a cluster of islands in Lumley's
inlet, to which they gave the name of Savage
Islands; why, is not very clear, because though
they observed on some of them many tents and
canoes, and dogs, they saw no people. On ascend-
ing a hill, however, they discovered a large boat
on the water with fourteen people in it. "Among
the tents I found," says Baffin, "a little bagge, in
which was a company of little images of men ;
one the image of a woman with a child at her
backe, all the which I brought away." The dogs,
to the amount of thirty-five or forty, were most of
them muzzled, and are described as a sort of "mun-
grele mastiffes, being of a brinded blacke colour
looking almost like wolves." These dogs draw
their sleds over the ice, and they draw with collars
and other furniture.
In the narrow passages between these islands the
ship was frequently set fast in the ice, which some-
times entirely choked up those straits. Here
Baffin observes, that he saw the sun and the moon
at the same time, which is not unusual in fair
weather; and this gave him an opportunity of
208
1615.
DISCOVERIES OF
making an observation for the longitude; justly
remarking, that "if observations of this kinde or
some other, at places farre remote, as at the Cape
Bona Speranza, Bantam, Japan, Nova Albion and
Magellan Straits, I suppose we should have a
truer geography then we have."
The ice at length opening afforded an opportu-
nity for the ship to escape; they next approached
Salisbury Island, a little to the northward of which
was a cluster or group, to which they gave the
name of Mill Islands, from the grinding of one
mass of ice against the other. The latitude of the
main island of this group was observed to lie in
64°. In the narrow sounds made by these islands,
the ice running one way and the current the other,
the ship was frequently in the utmost danger;
"but God," says Baffin, "which is still stronger
then either ice or streame, preserved us and our
shippe from any harme at all." They continued
advancing slowly to the north-westward; and
finding the flood coming down from the north-
ward, they were "put in great comfort and
hope of a passage in this place," on which
account the master called the cape or headland
Cape Comfort; and the hope was increased by
finding the depth of one hundred and forty
fathoms not a league from the shore. The lat.
of this cape is 65° and long. 85° 20′ W. of
London. "But this our sudaine comfort," says
was as soone quailed;" for having passed
Baffin,
(C
+
1615.
209
ROBERT BY LOT.
the cape
the land was observed to stretch away to
the north-eastward, and the farther they proceeded
north the shoaler was the water, and the more the
sea pestered with ice. Having, therefore, reached
the lat. 65° 26′ and long. 86° 10′ W., the master
concluded they were in a great bay, "and so
tacked and turned the shippes head homewards,
without any farther search.”
Coasting the land, therefore, to the southward,
they fell in with a number of morses, and called
the point opposite, Sea-horse Point; passed Not-
tingham's Isle, near which they remained till the
27th of July, observing the set of the tides, the
time of high water, &c. and taking in ballast.
From thence they proceeded between Salisbury
and Nottingham Islands. The master, however,
was not quite satisfied in giving up the point so
soon and stood back again to Sea-horse Point, but
the trending of the land gave no hopes of a passage
that way, and they again stood to the south-east-
ward to Digges's Islands, where they killed about
seventy fowls, which are called willocks; and it is
observed they might have killed many thousands,
these birds frequenting those islands in incredible
multitudes. On the 5th of August they passed
Resolution Island, and on the 7th of September
came to anchor in Plymouth Sound; all the crew
living, having only three or four sick, all of whom
speedily recovered.
VOL. I.
P
( 210 )
1616.
1
ROBERT BY LOT AND WILLIAM BAFFIN. 1616.
This is the fifth voyage made in the little bark
the Discovery in search of a north-west passage,
which ship was again fitted out by the same
adventurers, who, we are now told, were the Right
Worshipful Sir Thomas Smith, Knight, Sir Dudley
Digges, Knight, Master John Wolstenholme, Es-
quire, Master Alderman Jones, with some others.
ROBERT BY LOT was again appointed Master, and
WILLIAM BAFFIN Pilot. The instructions given
for their guidance have the merit of being clear,
distinct, and brief.
"For your course you must make all possible
haste to the Cape Desolation; and from thence
you, William Baffin as pilot, keep along the coast
of Greenland and up Fretum Davis, until you
come toward the height of eighty degrees, if the
land will give you leave. Then, for feare of in-
baying, by keeping too northerly a course, shape
your course west and southerly, so farre as you
shall thinke it convenient, till you come to the
latitude of sixtie degrees; then direct your course
to fall with the land of Yedzo, about that height,
leaving your farther sayling southward to your
owne discretion, according as the time of the year
and windes will give you leave; although our
desires be, if your voyage prove so prosperous,
that you may have the year before you, that you
goe so farre southerly as that you may touch the
1616.
211
BY LOT AND BAFFIN.
north part of Japan, from whence, or from Yedzo,
if
you can so compasse it without danger, we
would have you to bring home one of the men of
the countrey; and so God blessing you with all
expedition to make your return home againe.'
"*
On the 26th March the Discovery, with seven-
teen persons on board, set sail from Gravesend; but
the weather being boisterous, they were compelled
to seek shelter, first in Dartmouth and then in
Plymouth. They got away from the latter place
on the 19th April, and, "after a good passage, the
first land we saw was in Fretum Davis, on the
coast of Greenland, in the latitude of 65° 20′."
They proceeded northerly, without obstruction, to
latitude 70° 20′, and anchored in a fair sound near
the London Coast of Davis. The natives all ran
away, leaving their dogs behind them. Here the
small rise of the tide being only eight or nine feet,
gave Baffin "some dislike of the passage."
On the 30th May they reached Hope Sanderson,
the extreme point of Davis's progress, lying be-
tween 72° and 73°, and fell in with much ice,
which on the 1st June they got clear of, and, the
wind being contrary, put in among a cluster of
islands; but on the natives seeing their ship they
fled away, leaving their tents behind. They found
several women, however, who had hidden them-
selves among the rocks, some of them young and
others old, one of the latter being from her ap-
Purchas's Pilgrims, vol. iii. p. 842.
P 2
212
1616
DISCOVERIES OF
pearance little less than fourscore. To this group
they gave the name of IVomen's Islands; the
latitude of that nearest which they lay being 72°
45', the tide still small, and the flood coming from
the southward. The inhabitants are described as
very poor, living on seal's flesh, which they eat raw,
and clothing themselves with their skins. The
faces of the women were marked with black
streaks. They seemed to worship the sun, pointing
constantly to it and stroking their breasts, and
calling out at the same time Ilyout! The men
and dogs are buried in the same manner, each
having a heap of stones piled over them.
Departing from hence they stood away to the
northward, between the ice and the land, being in
a channel as it were of seven or eight leagues
wide, till they came to the latitude 74° 4′, when
they found themselves much pestered with the
ice; and here they dropped anchor near three
small islands, which appeared to be occasionally
visited by the people of the neighbouring coast.
They then tried to make their way to the westward,
but the ice was too firm to let them pass; and
therefore they returned to some islands in latitude
73° 45′ to wait till the ice (which they observed to
consume very fast) should disappear. During
their stay at this place, some forty of the natives
came in their boats and exchanged seal's skins, sea
morse teeth, and unicorn's horns, for small pieces
of iron, glass beads, and such like. To this place
they gave the name of Horn Sound.
1616.
213
BY LOT AND BAFFIN.
On the 18th, on perceiving that much of the ice
had already wasted, they proceeded northerly; but
the weather was extremely cold with much snow,
and Baffin says, it froze so hard, "that on Mid-
summer day our shrowds, roapes, and sailes were
so frozen that we could scarce handle them." By
the 1st July, being then in latitude 75° 40′, they
had got into an open sea, "which," says Baffin,
anew revived the hope of a passage." On the
second they found a fair cape or headland, which
they named Sir Dudley Digges's Cape, in latitude
76° 35', and twelve leagues beyond this a fair
sound, having an island in the midst, making two
entrances. To this sound they gave the name of
Wolstenholme Sound; it is described as having
many inlets or smaller sounds in it, and as a fit
place for the killing of whales.
On the 4th, the weather being stormy, they
found themselves embayed in a large sound, in
which they saw so many whales that they named
it Whale Sound: it lies in latitude 77° 30'. Between
two great sounds was an island, which they called
Hakluyt's Island, and the latter sound Sir Thomas
Smith's Sound, which runneth to the north of 78°,
“and is admirable in one respect, because in it is
the greatest variation in the compasse of any part
of the world known; for, by divers good observa-
tions, I found it to be above five points or fifty-six
degrees varied to the westward." To a cluster of
islands Baffin gave the name of Carey's Islands,
P 3
214
1616.
DISCOVERIES OF
1
but he does not give their position, observing, that
"all which sounds and islands the map doth truly
describe." Of this map of Baffin hereafter.
The wind being favourable they stood to the
south-westward, in an open sea, and with a stiff
gale of wind, till the 10th, when it became calm
and foggy; they were then near the land, in the
entrance of a fair sound, which they named Alder-
man Jones's Sound. The boat was sent on shore,
but it soon returned on account of the bad
weather; no sign of people were seen, but abun-
dance of sea morses among the ice. Standing on
to the westward, they opened out, on the 12th,
another great sound in 74° 20', which they named
Sir James Lancaster's Sound. 66
Here," says Baf-
fin, "our hope of passage began to be lesse every
day than other, for from this sound to the south-
ward wee had a ledge of ice betweene the shoare
and us, but cleare to the seaward; we kept close
by this ledge of ice till the 14th day in the after-
noone, by which time wee were in the latitude of
71° 16', and plainely perceived the land to the
southward of 70° 30'; then wee, having so much
ice round about us, were forced to stand more
eastward;" and in this direction they ran amongst
the ice threescore leagues, nor could they approach
the land till they came to about 68°, and being
then unable to get to the shore on account of the
ice, they drifted down to 65° 40′.
Then," says
Baffin, "wee left off seeking to the west shoare,
because wee were in the indraft of Cumberland's
!
1616.
215
BYLOT AND BAFFIN.
Isles, and should know no certaintie and hope of
passage could be none." He adds, "Now seeing
that wee had made an end of our discovery, and
the year being too farre spent to goe for the
bottome of the bay to search for drest finnes,*
therefore wee determined to goe for the coast of
Groneland to see if we could get some refreshing
for our men." Their crew, it seems, were very weak
and sickly, one had died and three laid up in their
hammocks. They therefore stood for the shore,
and anchored in a place called Cockin Sound, in
latitude 65° 45'. And here on a little island they
found abundance of scurvy-grass, which they
boiled in beer, and mixing it with sorrel and orpen,
both very plentiful, made good sallads; the men
in the course of eight or nine days perfectly re-
covered. They also received, after continuing a
few days, "salmon peale" from the natives. It is
also stated, that in this sound "were such great
scales of salmon swimming to and fro, that it is
much to be admired."
They left this bay on the 6th August, and on the
25th of the same month came in sight of the coast
of Ireland, and on the 30th anchored safely in
Dover Road, "for the which," says Baffin, "and
all other his blessings, the Lord make us thankful."
This voyage, which ought to have been, and
indeed may
still be, considered as the most interest-
* Whalebone.
P 4
1
216
1616.
DISCOVERIES OF
ing and important either before or since, is the
most vague, indefinite, and unsatisfactory of all
others, and the account of it most unlike the
writing of William Baffin. In all his other
journals, we have not only the latitude and longi-
tude noted down, but the observations of the
heavenly bodies from which they were deduced,
and the arithmetical operation inserted; the lon-
gitude, the variation and declination of the mag-
netic needle, the courses steered, and a variety of
particulars entered on the proper day; but in this
most important voyage, purporting to have reached
many degrees of latitude beyond any preceding
voyage, and to have skirted the coast and islands of
America, where the passage must have been found,
if it has any existence, we have neither course,
nor distance, nor variation of the compass, except
once, and no one longitude whatever; so vague and
indefinite indeed is every information left, which
could be useful, that each succeeding geographer
has drawn "Baffin's Bay" on his chart as best
accorded with his fancy. It would almost seem
as if Baffin was averse from discovery on this
voyage; for when they had reached only the lati-
tude 70° 20′, beyond which even Davis had been, he
conceived "some dislike of the passage;" and the
slovenly manner in which he runs over the nume-
rous "sounds,” in a very high degree of latitude,
is quite vexatious; indeed, from the multitude of
whales, which he describes to choke up those
1616.
217
BY LOT AND BAFFIN.
sounds, they were perhaps nothing more than
openings between huge ice-bergs, or at any rate
passages made by an archipelago of islands. Baf-
fin is so much aware of this, that in his letter to
Mr. John Wolstenholme he observes, "some may
object and aske why we sought that coast no
better?" to which he alleges, in answer, the bad-
ness of the weather, the loss of anchors, the weak-
ness of the crew, and the advanced season of the
year.
Purchas, however, is blameable to a certain
degree, for the meagreness of Baffin's journal and
the suppression of a chart which accompanied it;
for he admits, in a marginal note, that "this map
of the author's for this and the former voyage,
with the tables of his journal and sayling, were
somewhat troublesome and too costly to insert."*
It may be observed, that Baffin drew off from the
main land of America to the eastward, from the
very spot where of all others a passage is most
likely to be found; but he is not to blame for
not then possessing that knowledge which Cook
and Hearne and Mackenzie have since supplied.
*Purchas's Pilgrims, vol. iii. p. 847.- Purchas," says Dal-
rymple," has unpardonably omitted publishing Baffin's original
map, which, as well as his journal, he had in his possession.
Nor can the low state of the art of engraving at that time be
pleaded as an excuse, since that valuable original merited his
attention more than the vile scraps he has given from Hondius.”
-Mem. of a Map of the Lands around the North Pole.
(218)
1603 to
1
VARIOUS VOYAGES, OF A MIXED CHARACTER, TO
HIGH NORTHERN LATITUDES.
From 1603 to 1615.
THE Various voyages which had been made into
the arctic seas, for the purpose of discovering a
passage to the Indies, not only laid the foundation
of an extensive and advantageous commerce with
Russia, but gave rise to the regular establishment
of the fisheries of Newfoundland, of Davis Strait
and of Spitzbergen. So early as the year 1603,
the "worshipful Francis Cherie" fitted out a
ship, called the Grace, of fiftie tons, whereof
STEPHEN BENNET was master, with instructions
to visit Cola in the first place, in order to dispose of
her cargo, and take in such other goods as Lapland
might afford; and after that "to proceed upon
some discoverie." For the latter purpose Bennet
left the river of Cola on the 6th.of August, with a
determination to sail as far as 80° of latitude, if
nothing should hinder him. On the 17th of
August he fell in with an island, on which the
people landed, but found nothing but two foxes,
one white the other black, a piece of lead, and a
fragment of a morse's tooth. Being too late in the
year to attempt any thing farther to the north, he
stood from this island to the westward, continuing
in the same parallel till he had an observation, by
1615. VOYAGES OF A MIXED CHARACTER.
219
which he determined the latitude of the island to
be 74° 30'. This island, though discovered by
Barentz several years before, and named by him
Bear Island, was now named by Bennet, and has
since retained the name, Cherry Island.
The following year Bennet proceeded on the
same voyage, in the God Speed, of sixty tons,
belonging to Mr. Thomas Welden. They left
Wardhuys the 6th of July. On the 8th they saw
Cherry Island, and, on going on shore, found "so
many fowles that they covered the rockes, and
flew in such great flockes that they shewed like a
cloud;" and, in returning, "a huge morse putting
his head above the water, made such a horrible
noyse and roaring, that they in the boate thought
he would have sunk it." On another part of the
island they found "a multitude of these monsters
of the sea, lying like hogges upon heaps." They
shot at them in vain till their muskets were spoiled
and their powder was spent, when "wee would
blow their eyes out with a little pease-shot, and
then come on the blind side of them, and with our
carpenter's axe cleave their heads: but for all that
wee could doe, of above a thousand wee killed but
fifteene." They filled a hogshead with the loose
teeth found on the island. In the interior they
saw only fowls and foxes. On another side of the
island were at least a thousand morses lying, and
on the shore abundance of drift-wood, mostly fir.
Having killed about fifty of the morses or wal-
220
1603 to
VOYAGES OF
russes, they returned to Cola; and, departing for
England, arrived in the Thames the 15th of Octo-
ber, 1604.
The next year MR. WELDEN, the owner of the
ship, with Bennet, as master, made another voyage
to Cherry Island; and being now more expert in
killing the morses, they not only took their teeth
but boiled their blubber into oil. They also dis-
covered a mine of lead-ore, and brought away
about thirty pounds of it in weight.
Again, in 1606, Bennet proceeded in the same
ship, accompanied by a pinnace of twenty tons.
They arrived off the island on the 3d of July, but
the ice not having yet broken up from the shores,
the morses had not landed. On the 13th the ice
began to go away and the morses to land. A
party, properly equipped, went on shore; and so
well had they improved in the work of destruc-
tion, that "before six hours were ended wee had
slayne about seven or eight hundred beasts." By
the 26th they had taken on board twenty-two tons
of oil and three hogsheads of teeth, besides which
they slew two large bears. They then left the
island on the 29th of July, and on the 15th of
August arrived in the Thames.
In 1608 Mr. Welden again proceeded in his
ship to Lapland and Cherry Island, at the latter of
which he arrived on the 18th of June, slew two
bears on shore, and perceived great store of sea
morses. On the 21st and 22d the weather is
1615.
221
A MIXED CHARACTER.
stated to have been calm and clear, and as hot as is
commonly felt at that time of the year in Eng-
land;
"for the pitch did runne downe the ship's
sides; and that side of the masts that was to the
sunne-ward was so hot that the tarre did frye out
of it, as though it had boyled."
At the bottom of a cove, on the south side of the
island, they slew about nine hundred or a thousand
morses in less than seven hours; and such was the
quantity of these animals killed, that by the 9th
they had taken in thirty-one tons of oil, one hogs-
head, one barrell and one tierce of morses' teeth,
besides 400 loose teeth. There was also a second
ship here, called the Dragon belonging to a
brewer of St. Catharine's.
They took on board a couple of young morses,
male and female; the female died on the passage,
but the male was brought home alive and carried
to the court, "where the king and many honour-
able personages beheld it with admiration, for the
strangenesse of the same, the like whereof had
never before beene seene alive in England. Not
long after it fell sick and died. As the beast in
shape is very strange, so it is of strange docilitie,
and apt to be taught, as by good experience wee
often proved."
""*
Another voyage to this island was undertaken
in 1609, which is chiefly remarkable on account
* Purchas, vol. iii. p. 560.
222
1603 to
VOYAGES OF
of formal possession being taken of it in the name
of the Muscovy Company; of the extraordinary
quantity of bears seen and slain; of the multitude
of foxes; of good sea coal, and three mines of lead
ore being discovered on Gull Island; and for their
meeting with no less than three other ships at the
island, making with theirs a little fleet of five
vessels, and one hundred and eighty-two men; the
whole of which vessels, being caught in a cove by
the drift-ice, had nearly been crushed to atoms.
In consequence of the possession taken of Cherry
Island, on the part of the Muscovy Company, the
ship Amitie, of seventy tons, was fitted out by that
company in the year 1610 for a further discovery
to be made towards the North Pole, either for
trade or a passage that way, of which ship JONAS
POOLE, who had been on all the former voyages,
was appointed master. He passed the North Cape
on the 2d of May, "after many stormes, much
cold, snow and extreame frosts." He made the
latitude of Cherry Island on the 6th, but could not
approach it on account of the vast quantity of ice,
among which "the ship had many a knocke."
He stood on to the northward, and, on the 16th of
May, saw land in 76° 50', which was, of course, a
part of Spitzbergen. The boat was sent on shore,
and the people finding a deer's horn they gave the
name of Horn Sound to the bay in which they
landed; and to the land first seen, about four
leagues to the southward of the bay, that of
1615.
223
A MIXED CHARACTER.
55
"it was
Muscovy Mount. Leaving this part of the coast
he stood first to the westward, then to the north-
ward, and in lat. 77° 25′ finds the weather on the
17th of May "very warme and farre temperater'
than at the North Cape at the same period of the
year. On the 19th, however, he says,
very thick fogges, with wind, frost and snow, and
cold, that I thinke they did strive here which of
them should have the superioritie." Such was the
continuance of fog that he complains of not being
able to see the sun on the meridian for five days,
and not at all for sixty hours, though constantly
above the horizon. In 78° 37′ he named the head-
land of a small island Fair Foreland; and here he
assures himself "that a passage may be as soone
attayned this way, by the pole, as any unknowne
way whatsoever, by reason the sun doth give a
great heat in this climate; and the ice that freezeth
here is nothing so huge as I have seen in 73
degrees."
On a small island he killed a great number of
deer, and gave to the bay the name of Deer
Sound; after this they slew several bears, and a
multitude of the walrus or sea-horse. "The tenth
day," he goes on to say, "I went on shoore and
slue five deeres, with the which and them that I
slue before, I have lengthened out my victuals,
blessed be the Creator of the world, which hath not
made any part thereof in vaine, but so that in
these parts (which hath seemed impossible to our
224
1603 to
VOYAGES OF
ancestors to bee travelled unto, by reason of the
extreame cold which they supposed to be here) I
find the ayre temperate in the lands, and nothing
so cold as I have found at Cherry Island in five
severall voyages. Moreover, in this land. I have
seene great store of deere, which have neither bark
nor tree to shelter them from the nipping cold of
winter, nor yet any extraordinarie pasture to
refresh them. If then (I say) having nothing but
the rockes for a house, and the starry canopie for
a covering doe live here, why may not man, which
hath all the gifts of God bestowed upon him for
his health and succour?”*
The farthest latitude reached in this voyage was
79° 50′, in which parallel was situated a part of
land, to which Poole gave the name of Gurnerd's
Nose, leading into Faire Haven, where he also
met with and killed several deer, which were in
such excellent condition that both these and most
of them which had before been killed had two and
three inches thick of fat upon them. In Deer
Sound they found sea-coal, which burned very
well. Towards the end of July he stood to the
southward with the intention of calling at Cherry
Island, but the ice was so thickly packed that he
gave up the attempt and proceeded homewards,
arriving in London on the last day of August.
This voyage, as appears by the commission given
* Journal of Jonas Poole in Purchas, vol. iii.
p. 703.
1615.
225
A MIXED CHARACTER.
to Poole, was intended not only as an experiment
to "catch a whale or two," and to kill sea morses,
but also for northern discovery. It thus sets out :
"Inasmuch as it hath pleased Almightie God,
through the industry of yourselfe and others, to
discover unto our nation a land lying in eightie
degrees toward the North Pole: We are desirous,
not only to discover farther to the northward,
along the said land, to find whether the same be an
island or a mayne, and which way the same doth
trend, either to the eastward or to the westward of
the pole; as also whether the same be inhabited
by any people, or whether there be an open sea
farther northward then hath been already dis-
covered: For accomplishing of all which our
desires we have made choice of you, and to that
end have entertained you into our service for cer-
taine yeares upon a stipend certayne; not doubting
but you will so carrie yourselfe in the businesse
for which you were so entertayned, as God may
be
glorified, our countrey benefited, yourselfe credited,
and we in our desires satisfied, &c."
Jonas Poole appears to have been a faithful
servant, and a good and well experienced mariner;
but Purchas tells us that, after this voyage, as he
had heard, "he was miserably and basely mur-
thered betwixt Ratcliffe and London;"* notwith-
standing which he continues to give two more
VOL. I.
* Purchas, Pil. vol. iii. p. 707.
Q
226
1603 to
VOYAGES OF
voyages, performed afterwards, and written by
Jonas Poole himself.
The same company sent out the following year a
large ship of 150 tons, of which STEPHEN BENNET
was master, and Thomas Edge factor, "for the
killing of the whale ;" and, as this appears to have
been the first voyage undertaken expressly for that
purpose, it is stated, that "they have bin at the
charge of procuring of sixe men of Saint John de
Luz accustomed to that function." Jonas Poole
accompanied this ship as master of the Elizabeth,
with two others, which were to proceed, one to St.
Nicholas or Archangel, the other to Nova Zembla.
While the ships were engaged in fishing, Poole
stood to the northward as high as 80°, near Spitz-
bergen, then crossed to the east coast of Greenland,
near Sanderson's Hold with Hope, and says he ran
about forty leagues to the westward of the eastern-
most part of the land as it was then laid down in his
charts; he next stood across to Cherry island, and
again proceeded to Spitzbergen, where he found
part of the crew of the large ship on shore, she
having been lost in the ice; they atferwards were
taken on board a vessel from Hull, which carried
them home.
The next year, 1612, the same company of mer-
chants sent out two ships, the Whale and the Sea-
horse, under JONAS POOLE. On their arrival at
Cherry Island they found a ship from Holland, in
which one Alan Salowes, an Englishman, was
1615.
227
A MIXED CHARACTER.
pilot. This is not the first Dutch ship that was
employed on the whale fishery. One Jan Mayen,
the preceding year, discovered an island to the
northward of Iceland in about 71° of latitude,
which still bears his name; and which for several-
years was a sort of fishing station of the Dutch,
till their frequent visits and the boiling their blub-
ber on shore frightened away all the whales and
sea morses; of late years it has rarely been ap-
proachable on account of the ice. From Cherry
Island, Poole proceeded to Spitzbergen; and being
in Foul Sound, the said Alan Salowes came on
board and reported, that his merchant (the Dutch-
man) "had broke his necke down a cliffe." Here
also Poole met with one Thomas Marmaduke, of
Hull, in a ship called the Hopewell, which, how-
ever, soon left them and stood to the northward.
"This ship," (Poole says,)" as we were afterward
informed, discovered as farre as 82 degrees: two
degrees beyond Hakluyt's Headland." This is the
highest degree of latitude mentioned to which any
ship had yet proceeded, except we give credit to
the account supposed to have been received from
Adams by the Jesuits of Japan.
This voyage is chiefly curious on account of the
rapid progress which appears to have been made in
the art of killing whales by the help of the
Biscayans; not fewer than thirteen having been
taken by Poole's ship alone, besides many others
by a vessel from London, by another from Hull,
Q 2
༣
228
1603 to
VOYAGES OF
and by one from Biscay, having an English pilot
on board.
In the year 1613 the same company sent out six
ships and a pinnace to fish on the coast of Green-
land, (Spitzbergen,) in one of which was the cele-
brated navigator WILLIAM BAFFIN ; and so rapidly
had the fame of the fishery spread over the mari-
time nations of Europe, that no less than eight
Spaniards, two Dutchmen, four Frenchmen from
Dunkirk, besides some Biscayans, were this year
assembled in the sea of Spitzbergen; one of the
ships of Biscay being seven hundred tons, and
others from two to three hundred tons. "The
first," says Baffin, "we expected would have
fought with us, but they submitted themselves
unto the generall." The English having taken
possession of the whole country in the name of his
Majesty, prohibited all the others from fishing
and sent them away, excepting such as they were
pleased to grant leave to remain.
In this voyage the extraordinary refraction of
the atmosphere is first noticed by Baffin, who fre-
quently observed a considerable difference in the
latitude of the same place deduced from the alti-
tude of the sun above and from that below the pole.
The quantity of this refraction he therefore endea-
voured to ascertain by an observation of the sun
when on the meridian below the pole, when one
fifth part of his body only appeared above the
horizon, and the result gave him twenty-six
minutes; "but," observes this intelligent navi-
1615.
229
A MIXED CHARACTER.
gator, "I suppose the refraction is more or lesse,
according as the ayre is thicke or clear, which I
leave for better schollers to discusse."
On the 6th September, all the ships arrived
safe in the Thames, with a good store of oil and
bone.
The last successful voyage induced the company
to send out in 1614, ten ships and two pinnaces,
besides the Thomasine, intended for discoveries,
under the orders of ROBERT FOTHERBY. Baffin
was likewise on this voyage, but the relation of
it is given by Fotherby, and contains nothing
deserving of particular notice. Being much
hampered with ice, the ship intended for dis-
covery got very little beyond the north-eastern
extremity of Spitzbergen. BAFFIN was again, in
1615, sent on northern discovery in the pinnace
called the Richard, of twentie tons, but got no
farther north than Hakluyt's Headland; he men-
tions however his having marked down on a map,
"how farre the state of this sea is discovered
betwixt eighty and seventy-one degrees of lati-
tude; and with regard to the probability of a
passage by the pole," he says, "for as much as it
appears not yet to the contrarie but that there is
a spacious sea betwixt Greenland, and King James
his New Land, (Spitzbergen) although much
pestered with ice: I will not seem to dissuade
this worshipfull companie from the yeerly adven-
turing of £150 or £200 at the most, till some
Q 3
230
1619.
DISCOVERIES OF
further discoverie be made of the said seas and
lands adjacent," which he thinks might very well
be performed by the little pinnace with a crew of
ten men. For several years after this the whale
fishery proved successful, till at length the Dutch
fairly drove the English from this lucrative branch
of trade.
JENS MUNK. 1619.
The discoveries of Hudson and Baffin once
more turned the attention of the slumbering
Danes towards their lost colonies on the coasts of
Greenland, and perhaps held out to them a hope
of completing the long-sought-for passage in that
direction to the Indies. Accordingly in the year
1619, Christian IV. caused two ships to be fitted
out on a voyage of discovery, the command of
which was given to an experienced seaman of the
name of JENS MUNK. The vessels, it would seem,
were chiefly manned with English sailors, who no
doubt had been employed on some of the former
expeditions for making discoveries, or on the
whale fishery. Munk left Elsineur on the 18th
May, and on the 20th June made Cape Farewell,
and endeavoured to stand up Davis's Strait, with
the intention, as it would seem, of pursuing the
track of Baffin and Bylot; but he found his vessels
so perpetually hampered with ice, that he returned
1619.
231
JENS MUNK.
along the coast to the southern extremity, from
whence he passed through Hudson's Strait, the
name of which he thought fit to change to that
of Christian's Strait, (Fretum Christiani.) The
northern part of what is called Hudson's Bay, he
converted into Mare Novum, the New Sea, and
the southern and eastern side he changed into Mare
Christianum, Christian's Sea; and either he, or the
publisher of his voyage, has accompanied it with
a chart in which the whole geography of Hud-
son's Sea and its islands is upset and distorted. He
made the coast of America in 63° 20′, where,
meeting with much ice, he was compelled to seek
for shelter in an opening in the land which he
called Munk's Winter Harbour, and to the sur-
rounding country he gave the name of New Den-
mark. This harbour must be that which has since
been named Chesterfield or Bowden's Inlet. The
year being far advanced, (having entered the harbour
on the 7th September,) and seeing no likelihood of
being able to cross Hudson's Sea and Strait, he
took the precaution of first hutting himself and
his people, and then exploring the neighbouring
country, which luckily afforded them a plentiful
stock of game, consisting of white bears, black
foxes, hares, partridges, and other birds. On the
27th of November there appeared in the heavens
three distinct suns, and again two, equally distinct,
on the 24th January. On the 18th of the preceding
December, there was an eclipse of the moon, and
Q 4
232
1620.
DISCOVERIES OF
ger
the night this luminary was environed by a trans-
parent circle, within which was a cross, cutting
through the centre of the moon, and quartering
it-this phenomenon was regarded as the harbin-
of those misfortunes which soon befel them.
The frost had set in with such severity that the
wine, brandy, and beer, were entirely frozen, and
the casks burst with the intense cold. The
scurvy began to make its appearance among the
crews of the two vessels, consisting of forty-eight
persons in the one, and sixteen in the other.* The
spring of the year brought with it no relief to their
misery. Their bread and provisions were ex-
hausted, and none of them had strength enough
to take any of the ducks, geese, partridges and
other fowl which came around them in infinite
multitudes. They were reduced to a most helpless
and deplorable state, and the mortality became
almost general. Towards the beginning of the
month of May 1620, those who had survived had
the misery of knowing that the whole of their
provisions were consumed, and that famine was
now added to disease. They had no strength left
to pursue the animals which surrounded them.
Munk himself, reduced to the last extremity,
remained alone in a little hut in so hopeless and
* In a Danish M.S. it is said that the disease was mostly
occasioned by the almost unrestrained use of spirituous liquors,
which are known to be particularly destructive in a cold climate.
1620.
233
JENS MUNK.
desponding a state, as to expect nothing but
death. At length however, pressed by hunger, he
had the resolution to crawl out of his hovel and
inquire into the fate of his unhappy companions;
he found only two alive, all the rest having perished.
These three men encouraged each other to make
an attempt to procure some species of food; they
scratched away the snow and found some plants
and roots, which they eagerly devoured. By
degrees they were able to take fish in the river, as
the ice disappeared, birds, and other animals. They
now thought of getting home, and for this purpose
equipped the little vessel from the stores in the
large one; they re-passed Hudson's Strait, and
after a stormy passage, in which the ship was
almost abandoned to herself, they arrived safely in
a port of Norway on the 25th September.
They were received in Denmark as men risen
from the grave: and the recital of their adven-
tures and sufferings created a general sympathy
in their favour. Such indeed appears to have
been the interest excited by these new discoveries
that Munk, notwithstanding his sufferings, once
more proposed to make the attempt to discover a
north-west passage. A subscription was set on
foot for that purpose, and every thing was made
ready for his departure. On taking leave of the
court, the conversation turned on the misfortunes of
his former enterprize, and the King, in admonish-
ing him to be more cautious than in his last
234
1620.
DISCOVERIES OF JENS MUNK.
}
voyage, seemed to ascribe the loss of his people
to some mismanagement. Munk feeling sensibly
this reproof, answered in a manner less respectful
than that to which the royal ear had been ac-
customed, and the King, forgetting all decency
and moderation, struck him a blow with his cane.
The indignity thus sustained by the unfortunate
navigator was never to be effaced, and he is said to
have taken his bed and died of a broken heart a
few days afterwards.
There is an air of romance thrown over a great
portion of the narrative of Munk's voyage; their
unparalleled sufferings-the survival of the three
persons only—their recovery from death's door by
eating grass and roots-their being able to get pro-
visions for a voyage across the Atlantic-and bring-
ing home one of the vessels-are things not physi-
cally impossible, though not very probable; and the
conduct of the King is most likely one of those
stories which have been repeated over and over
again, from one and the same source, without the
slightest foundation in truth. Forster indeed men-
tions, but without giving his authority, that the
same Munk was after his return employed by the
King in the years 1624, 25, and 27, in the north
sea, and on the Elbe; and that he died on the
3d June 1628, in the course of a naval ex-
pedition.*
*
* History of the Voyages and Discoveries, &c. p. 471.
1631.
(235)
LUKE FOX. 1631.
The last voyage of Baffin and Bylot in 1616,
which, from its uninterrupted northern progress,
might have been expected to raise the hopes of the
adventurers and of the nation, for a successful
issue of the oft-attempted passage, would seem,
on the contrary, to have cast a damp over the
minds of its most sanguine advocates; with the
exception of one attempt, under the direction of
a person of the name of Hawkridge, who sailed
with Sir Thomas Button, the project seems to have
been entirely given up. It is scarcely known
under whose employ, in what ship, or even in
what year, Captain Hawkridge sailed on this ex-
pedition. From the meagre fragment of the
voyage as given by Fox,* which, he says, he
procured "in manuscript or by relation," it is
evident at least that he added nothing to former
discoveries in the north-west.
The revival of an attempt to discover a north-
west passage is unquestionably owing to Captain
LUKE Fox, who, by his own account, had con-
tinued with unabated zeal to urge a new expedition,
for exploring the arctic seas; which, he says, " he
had been itching after ever since 1606, when he
wished to have gone as mate to John Knight."
* North-west Fox, p. 166.
236
1631.
DISCOVERIES OF
He succeeded at length in persuading Mr. Henry
Briggs and Sir John Brooke to petition His Majesty
Charles I. for the loan of one of his ships, and for
his countenance of the voyage, who, we are told,
"graciously accepted and granted both." Fox
says he was allowed to chuse his own ship, and
that he pitched on a pinnace of the burden of 80
tons, which was named the Charles, manned with
twenty men and two boys, victualled for eighteen
months, and well fitted in every respect. Sir
Thomas Roe and Sir John Wolstenholme were ap-
pointed to superintend the fitting out of this
enterprize, and the master and wardens of the
Trinity House were ordered to give their assistance.
The narrative of the voyage is written by Fox
himself, who affectedly assumes the name of the
North-west For. He was a keen shrewd York-
shireman, and evidently a man of considerable
talent, but conceited beyond measure; and the
style of his journal is so uncouth and the jargon
so obscure and comical, as in many places to be
scarcely intelligible. "Gentle reader," he thus
begins, "expect not heere any florishing phrases
or eloquent tearmes; for this child of mine, begot
in the north-west's cold clime, (where they breed
no schollers,) is not able to digest the sweet milke
of Rethorick," &c.
He leaves England, however, highly satisfied
both with himself and with his equipment. "I
was victualled," says he, "compleatly for eighteen
1631.
237
LUKE FOX.
moneths; but whether the baker, brewer, butcher,
and others were masters of their arts or professions
or no, I know not; but this I am sure of, I had
excellent fat beefe, strong beere, good wheaten
bread, good Iseland ling, butter and cheese of the
best, admirable sacke and aqua-vitæ, pease, oat-
meale, wheat-meale, oyle, spice, suger, fruit, and
rice; with chyrurgerie, as sirrups, juleps, condits,
trechissis, antidotes, balsoms, gummes, unguents,
implaisters, oyles, potions, suppositors, and purging
pils, &c." And on taking leave he received, he
says, from the King "a mappe of all my prede-
cessors discoveries, His Majesty's instructions,
with a letter to the Emperour of Japan."*
The merchants of Bristol, determined not to be
out-done by those of London in manifesting a
spirit of enterprize, fitted out the same year, and
for the same object, a ship called the Maria, the
command of which was given to Captain Thomas
James.
Fox left Deptford on the 5th May, passed Cape
Farewell in a fog and drizzling mists on the 13th
June, and, on the weather clearing, observed a
shoal of grampusses following their leader, which,
he tells us, brought to his recollection "Mr. Wil-
liam Browne in his Britaines Pastorals, where he
writes the Tritons wafted Thetis along the British
shores."" On the 20th he got sight of the land
6
* North-west Fox.
238
1631.
DISCOVERIES OF
to the northward of Lumley's Inlet, the name of
which affords matter for another recollection,
namely, that of the Right Honourable Lord Lum-
ley, and his building the pier of Hartepool at his
own cost and charge, also the answer of an old
man, whom he (Fox) had asked at whose cost the
said pier was built? "Marrye, at my good Lord
Lumley's, whose soule was in heaven before his
bones were cold." This kind of gossipping occurs
in almost every page of Fox's journal.
On the 20th he arrives off Cape Chidley; a spot
which brings to his fertile recollection Gibbons and
his hole, but why is not very apparent. The haste
with which he endeavoured to pass through Hud-
son's Strait to the westward, and to avoid the fate
of Gibbons, induced some one of his officers to
ask him why he was in such a hurry? and his
answer was, "that it fared with him as with the
mackarell-men of London, who must hasten to
market before the fish stinke." Towards the
western extremity of the strait he was much
hampered with ice, which he observed to be of
two kinds; first, mountainous ice, floating about
in large masses, "seldome bigger than a great
church;" and the second kind is called "masht or
fleackt ice, in pieces from a foot or two to two
acres, and one or two feet high above the surface."
One of the mountainous pieces, larger than the
rest, had a rock upon it of five or six tons weight,
with several other smaller stones and mud.
1631.
239
LUKE FOX.
On the 10th July he had only reached Salisbury
Island, where he observed that "the compasse
doth almost loose his sensitive part," which he
ascribes to "the sharpnesse of the ayre, interposed
betwixt the needle and his attractive point;" or,
"here may be some mountaines, of the one side
or the other, whose minerall may detaine the nim-
blenesse of the needles moveing to his respective
poynt; but this I leave to philosophie."
Mr. Fox is not very happy in his description of
a sea unicorn which passed the ship. "He was of
length about nine foot, black ridged, with a small
fin thereon, his taile stood crosse his ridge, and
indented between the pickends as it were on either
side with two scallop shels, his side dappled purely
with white and blacke, his belly all milke white,
his shape from his gils to his taile was fully like a
makarell, his head like to a lobster, whereout the
fore-part grewe forth his twined horn, above six
foote long, all blacke save the tip.'
The 20th July, near Carey's Swan's-nest," was a
hot day as any in England, the Henban flashing
all night," and at midnight "here was in the ayre
many pettit-dancers," (so he calls the aurora
borealis.) In coasting along the eastern shore of
America he falls in with an island, in which were
numerous burying places of the natives, and names
it Sir Thomas Rowe's Welcome; and to another
island he gives the name of Brooke Cobham, and
to a little group of islands Briggs his Mathema-
240
1631.
DISCOVERIES OF
tickes. In the burying grounds of Sir Thomas
Rowe's Welcome they found many corpses, wrap-
ped in deer-skins, and laid under stones with their
heads to the west, the longest of which, Fox says,
was not above four feet long. The bodies were
enclosed with planks nine or ten feet long and
four inches thick, a whole boat load of which they
carried off for fire wood. With the bodies were
deposited bows, arrows, lances, darts, and other
implements carved in bone. Many of the darts
were headed with iron, but one had a head of cop-
per, which makes him conclude that some Chris-
tians might have been there before him.
From the Welcome Fox stood again to the
southward, looking into Hubert's Hope, and the
day light, he says, enabled him to see the bottom
of "vainely Hoapt Hulbert." On the 9th August
he goes into Port Nelson, for reasons assigned in
long and minute detail, but not of sufficient
interest or importance to transcribe. Here they
found a cross which had been erected by Sir Tho-
mas Button, still bearing his name. From Nelson's
River Fox stood across the bay to the south-east-
ward, and on the 29th August fell in with Captain
James, on board whose ship he went and "was
well entertained and feasted;" for which, however,
he makes but a scurvy kind of return, speaking
thus slightingly of his brother navigator: "The
gentleman (meaning James) could discourse of
arte, as observations, calculations, and the like, and
1631.
241
LUKE FOX.
shewed me many instruments, so that I did perceive
him to bee a practitioner in the mathematicks;
but when I found that hee was no sea-man, I did
blame those very much who had councelled him
to make choyce of that shippe for a voyage of
such importance, for to indure two winters in, as
he must have done, if hee had any such intent,
before hee could come about Bona Sperance home;
our discourse had been to small purpose if wee had
not pried into the errours of our predecessors, (and
being demanded) I did not thinke much for his
keeping out his flagg; for my ambition was more
ætherial, and my thoughts not so ayerie, so to set
my sight towards the skie, but when I either
called to God or made celestial observation; to
this was replide, that hee was going to the Empe-
rour of Japon with letters from His Majestie, and
that if it were a ship of His Majesties of 40
pieces ordnance hee could not strike his flagg;
(keepe it up then, quoth I but you are out of the
way to Japon, for this is not it;"-and a great
deal more of such stuff.
Fox, having coasted a considerable time towards
the bottom part of Hudson's Bay to no purpose,
again directed his course to the northward on the
4th September, naming the cape he last parted
from Wolstenholme's Ultimum Vale; "for that I do
believe Sir John Wolstenholme will not lay out any
more monies in search of this bay." On the 8th
he had advanced to the land on which is Carey's
VOL. I.
R
242
1631.
DISCOVERIES OF
66
Swan's-nest, and observes, that "every night here
are petti-dancers, and red fire flashes in the ayre
most fearfull to behold." Proceeding to the north-
ward he passes a cape, to which he gives the name
of King Charles his Promontorie, and to another
Cape Maria, "in a most bounden and dutifull
remembrance of my King and Queene, drinking
their health with the young princes." The first
he estimates to be in about latitude 64° 46', and
the second eight leagues to the northward; and
he calls three islands, lying N.W. of the pro-
montory, The Trinitie Isles, in the remem-
brance of the House of Deepeford Strand." To
a headland lying some minutes within the arctic
circle he gives the name of my Lord Weston's
Portland, to another Cape Dorchester, and to the
land beyond this For his Farthest. On the 25th
September he begins to think that they had made
but "a scurvie voyage of it," and that in his opinion
it was the best they could do to bear up home-
wards; and accordingly he made sail out of Hud-
son's Strait, and arrived in the Downs on the 31st
October, with all his men recovered and sound,
66
not having lost one man nor boy, nor any
manner of tackling, having beene forth neere six
moneths, all glory be to God."*
Fox complains that he got no reward for his
trouble; in fact, the result of the voyage evidently
*North-west Fox.
1631.
248
LUKE FOX.
disappointed those who had been instrumental in
promoting it. He, however, maintains stoutly the
probability of a north-west passage, and that it will
be found in Sir Thomas Roe's Welcome,* where
the tide was observed to come from the north-
ward, and to rise higher than in any other part of
Hudson's Bay; he also observed a great number
of whales about this part, which he conceives to
indicate its proximity to the great sea. It is rather
surprizing that Fox, who was evidently a man of
great sagacity, should not have persisted, on his
first arrival on the coast of America, in tracking
the current to the northward, from whence he
observed it to flow, instead of following it to the
southward. On his second arrival in the Welcome
the season was too far advanced to prosecute the
discovery to the northward.
THOMAS JAMES. 1631.
CAPTAIN JAMES was furnished with similar cre-
dentials from Charles I. to those which were given
to Fox. He left Bristol in the Maria, of seventy
tons, on the 3d of May, 1631, passed Cape Fare-
*The name of Welcome was first given by Fox to an island;
but has since been applied indiscriminately to the north-eastern
coast of America, and to the strait lying between that coast and
Southampton Island; but more generally to the latter.
R 2
244
1631.
DISCOVERIES OF
well on the 9th of June, and on the 17th saw the
island of Resolution, not, however, before he had
many fields and islands of mountainous ice to
encounter, with a black looking sea, a continual
mist or fog, which is described as thick, heavy and
stinking; and the air so piercing as to affect the
compass and cause a sluggish and impeded motion
in the magnetic needle. In endeavouring to push
through Hudson's Strait, the ship was almost con-
tinually beset with ice, and sometimes driven about
at the mercy of the tides and currents. To add to
their distress in this situation, the sails were frozen
stiff and the rigging hanging with ice. If Fox
was conceited in consequence of the knowledge he
had acquired from studying the voyages of his pre-
decessors, James seems to have been more culpably
conceited in his total ignorance of all that had
been done before him; he not only appears to
have been wholly unacquainted with the narratives
of preceding voyagers, but purposely, as he tells
us, refused to take with him any person who had
previously been employed in a voyage of northern
discovery, or on the Spitzbergen fishery; the con-
sequence of which was, that as soon as they found
themselves surrounded with ice, they were wholly
ignorant how to manage the ship, and their want
of experience not only alarmed them, but had
nearly proved fatal to the ship and all on board;
for, in endeavouring to avoid the ice, the ship
settled upon a sharp rock, and the tide, then ebb-
1631.
245
THOMAS JAMES.
66
ing, left her hanging by the middle, and she fell
over to such a degree that they could not remain
on her.
Having now done," says James, "to
the best of our understandings, but to little pur-
pose, we went all upon a piece of ice and fell to
prayer, beseeching God to be merciful unto us."
The flowing tide brought her upright and floated
her off; "then was our sorrow turned to joy, and
we all fell on our knees, prasing God for his mercy
in so miraculous a deliverance." The ice, how-
ever, continued to increase to such an extent on all
sides, that they were unable to see from the mast
head the space of an acre of open sea; but a
change of wind dispersed it, and after many diffi-
culties and dangers, and much wailing, they reached
Salisbury Island on the 5th of July, and on the
15th, still much pestered with ice and imagining
a thousand times that the ship had been beaten
to pieces," they got between Nottingham and
Digges's Islands.
It would be tedious as well as useless to follow
Captain James in his slow progress to the south-
westward in Hudson's Bay. From his own utter
ignorance, and that of all hands on board, of the man-
ner of conducting a ship among ice, she was almost
constantly beset, and frequently remained unmova-
ble with all her sails spread. It was not to be won-
dered, therefore, that the people began to murmur
and to fancy that they were likely to pass the
winter in the midst of fields of ice and snow;
R 3
246
1631.
DISCOVERIES OF
especially as the 1st of August had arrived with-
out their having made much progress to the west-
ward. On the 29th they fell in with the Charles,
under the orders of Fox. Shortly after a tremen-
dous gale of wind, accompanied with snow and
hail, put them into the utmost peril; the waves
broke over the ship "with that tearing violence,"
says James, "that not I, nor any that were then
with me, ever saw the sea in such a breach." She
took in the water at both sides and at both ends;
it ran into the hold and into the bread-room;
"for the sea so continually overreached us, that we
were like Jonas in the whale's belly." On the
12th of September they contrived to run the ship
aground again among the rocks on the coast of
America, in about the latitude of 521°, and con-
ceiving that she had now got her "death's
wound," they threw into the boat some carpen-
ter's tools, a barrel of bread, a barrel of powder,
some muskets, matches, fishing-hooks and other
materials, which they sent ashore, "to prolong a
miserable life for a few days." She drove off,
however, and was found to be less injured than
they had expected. At length, after all manner of
perils, they came to an island on the 2d of October,
which was called, by James, the Earl of Danby's
Island; but now known generally by the name of
Charlton Island, lying in lat. about 52°.
After some time spent in determining what to
do, and in exploring the island, the sick men
1631.
247
THOMAS JAMES.
1
wished for a hovel on shore, which was accord-
ingly built and covered over with the mainsail.
A few deer was all that the island seemed at first
to produce, but on the winter setting in many
black foxes made their appearance; in looking for
which, the gunner's mate, in crossing a frozen
pond, fell in, and the ice closing upon him they
saw him no more.
Before the end of November every thing was
covered with frost and snow, and the ship
appeared to be one great mass of ice. On the 22d
the gunner died," an honest and a stout-hearted
man." His leg had been amputated, and notwith-
standing the constant fire kept up in his cabin,
“his plaisters would freeze at his wound, and his
bottle of sack at his head." The constant danger
to which the ship was exposed from the drift-ice,
and foul ground, and perpetual storms, determined
them to remove all the provisions to the shore and
quit her altogether, which was accordingly done
on the 26th of November; and it is stated, that
when they joined their sick companions on shore
66
they could not know us nor we them, by our
habits and voices, so frozen we were, faces, hair
and apparel." A dismal account is given of their
noses, cheeks and fingers being frozen as white as
paper, and of blisters being raised as large as wal-
nuts. The well which they had dug froze up, and
melted snow-water is pronounced to be very un-
R 4
248
1631.
DISCOVERIES OF
wholesome, either to drink or to dress victuals;
"it made us so short-breath'd that we were scarce
able to speak"-" all our sack, vinegar, oil, and
every thing else that was liquid, was now frozen
as hard as a piece of wood, and we cut it with a
hatchet; our house was all frozen in the inside,
and it froze hard within a yard of the fire-side”—
and all this happened before the middle of Decem-
ber, and in a latitude not thirty miles to the north-
ward of that of London.
In the month of January, James determined the
latitude of his winter quarters to be 51° 52′, and
ascribes the great difference between this and a
former observation to the effects of refraction;
and, as a proof of it, the disc of the sun, when
near the horizon, 'appeared to be twice as long as
it was broad; and by observations it was found
that, owing to the refractive power of the atmos-
phere, the sun rose full twenty minutes before and
set twenty minutes after the regular time. And on
two nights, in particular, he observed more stars in
the firmament, by two-thirds, than he had ever seen
before.
In February the scurvy began to make its
appearance among the crew, exhibiting the usual
symptoms of weakness, swelled legs, sore mouths,
black turgid gums, and teeth loose in the jaw.
As the spring advanced the cold increased; and it
is remarked, that the people found it "more mor-
1631.
249
THOMAS JAMES.
tifying cold to wade through the water in the be-
ginning of June, when the sca was full of ice, than
in December, when it was encreasing." It does
not seem to have occurred to Captain James that
this feeling was not occasioned by a greater degree
of absolute cold, but by the greater difference
between the temperature of the air and that of ice-
water in June, than in December.
Towards the middle of April they began to clear
away the ice out of their ship, and to see what
could be made of her. In the hold they found
some beer and wine which had not been frozen,
and which was a great comfort to the sick whose
condition is described as being most deplorable.
The death of the carpenter was a great interrup-
tion to their proceedings, but they contrived to
supply his place by one or two who could handle
a tool. At length, on the 1st of July, all was
ready for a start; the ship's colours were hoisted
on the poop and in the main-top, and the follow-
ing day they made sail; but such was the captain's
predilection for the shore and shoal water, that
even at this advanced season of the year, and
in the low latitude of 52°, the ship
" did so
strike against the ice, that her fore part would
crack again, and make our cook and others run up
all amazed and think the ship had been beaten all
to pieces."
Captain James, indeed, contrived, in the whole
of his northern passage, to be hampered with ice
250
1631.
DISCOVERIES OF
daily and almost hourly; so that it took them
from the 2d of July to the 24th of August to run
over 74 degrees of latitude. On this day they
saw Nottingham Island, where the whole sea was
covered with ice. On the 26th he asked his
officers for their counsel and advice-in what man-
ner he should proceed; who gave in writing their
unanimous opinion that he should repair home-
wards; an opinion which was accordingly adopted,
and on the 23d of October he arrived in Bristol
roads.
Captain James's history of his voyage may be
called a book of "Lamentation and weeping and
great mourning;" it is one continued strain of diffi-
culties and dangers and complainings from the
first making of the ice off Cape Farewell, till his
return to the same point. The observations it
contains are at this time of no use whatever,
though it is said that Mr. Boyle derived much in-
formation from it in composing his Treatise on
Cold. At that time the thermometer had not been
brought into use, nor any instrument known to
measure the degree of absolute cold; but the suf
ferings of his crew, from its great intensity,
could only have arisen from mismanagement, as
the people belonging to the Hudson's Bay Com-
pany pass the winters comfortably enough along
the line of coast near to which Charlton Island is
situated, and eight or ten degrees farther to the
northward. Of the slow dissolution of the ice he
-
1631.
251
THOMAS JAMES.
has the following observation:-" I have in July,
and in the beginning of August, taken some of the
ice into the ship and cut it square, two feet, and
put it into the boat where the sun shone, with a
very strong reflection about it, and notwithstand-
ing the warmth of the ship, for we kept a good
fire, and all our breathings and motion, it would not
melt in eight or ten days. It was our practice,
where we should be two days, to get her fast to a
piece of ice, to set marks to it, to see how it con-
sumed, but it yielded us small hope of dissolving;
we could not, in that time, perceive any diminu-
tion by the sinking of it, or otherwise; neverthe-
less I think that it is ruined by storms, or con-
sumed by heat some years, or else the bay would
be choked up; but I confess these secrets of nature
are past my comprehension."
**
With regard to discovery, James contributed
nothing to what former navigators had effected;
yet he boldly asserts the improbability of a north-
west passage, for reasons which he might just as
well have assigned prior to his voyage, and spared
himself and his people the sufferings they under-
went on Charlton Island. But, as Doctor Camp-
bell has observed, "all the difficulties and discou-
ragements, which, from too strong a sense of his
own disappointment, Captain James has conjured
up, sink to nothing, when duly considered and
compared with the circumstances that later disco-
* Harris's Collect. of Voy. and Travels, vol. ii. p. 428.
252
1631.
DISCOVERIES OF
veries have brought to light; so that there seems
to be no reason his conjectures should have any
weight to deter us from prosecuting attempts on
this side, even though they should still continue to
prove, in several instances, as they have hitherto
done, abortive.”*
CAPTAIN DANELL. 1652.
Frederick III. king of Denmark, in the year
1652, commanded CAPTAIN DANELL to undertake
an expedition to discover East Greenland. He set
sail from Copenhagen on the 8th of May, 1652,
with two vessels, and proceeded to the north of
Iceland. Then taking a westerly course, he per-
ceived the coast of Greenland on the 2d of June,
at the distance of about thirty miles, in lat. 64° 50';
but could not approach it nearer on account of
the ice. In the N. E. at about three miles dis-
tance, they saw two small islands, which they
named Hvidsolen and Mastelos Skib. On the 4th
they again saw land, which was very high, and
appeared to be covered with ice. This land was
about thirty-two miles from them; they sailed
among some little islands; the ice extended from
the coast eighteen or twenty miles into the sea.
On the 6th of June they saw five small islands in
lat. 65°, when fourteen miles distance from them;
*Harris's Collect. of Voy, and Travels, vol. ii. p. 428.
1652.
253
CAPTAIN DANELL.
in
they were all covered with snow, excepting one of
them, about four miles long, of a blackish colour,
but the ice prevented them from approaching it.
These islands were eighteen or twenty miles from
the land. The water between them was of a brown
colour, but they found neither fish, birds, nor seals.
The mountains on the shore were visible at sea at
the distance of nearly sixty miles. The most nor-
thern cape they saw, in 65° 30', received the name
of the Cape of King Frederick. They coasted along
the land, running to the S. W., but they could not
any place penetrate the ice, which however was
neither continuous nor firm enough to support
them when they wished to walk upon it towards
the land. On the 10th of June they were in lati-
tude 63° 10′, at twenty-five miles from the land.
On the 12th, in lat. 62°, they saw a mountain split
in two at fifteen or sixteen miles to the westward
of them. There were several small bays on the coast,
which here seemed to be the best country they had
yet seen in Greenland, but the ice prevented them
from approaching it nearer than twenty miles. They
doubled Cape Farewell and sailed up along the
western coast of Greenland, and remained on that
coast till the 16th of July. On the 18th of July
they repassed Cape Farewell, and on the 22d of
July, in 61° 30′ latitude, they again discerned the
eastern coast of Greenland seventy miles to the
N. W., and in two places they fancied they saw
buildings with turrets on them. On the 23d of
254
1653.
DISCOVERIES OF
July, in latitude 61°, they saw a bay between two
high mountains, and they would have entered it if
the night had not prevented them. For several days
following they continued to see land, which they
approached within four or five miles, but had no
means of reaching it on account of the ice. They
coasted along it as high as 63° 30′ of latitude, but
were obliged at length to give up their endeavours
to approach it, and returned to Denmark. Cap-
tain Danell set sail again from Copenhagen on the
16th of April, 1653, went to the north of Ice-
land as far as latitude 73° beyond that of the
island Jan Meyen, and then took the direction
of S. W. and W. S. W., and on the 13th of June,
in latitude 64°, saw something blue in the horizon
which he conjectured to be Cape King Frederick.
On the 19th of June he saw Herjolfsnes in Green-
land in latitude 64°, but the ice was twenty-four or
five miles from the coast. He coasted along as far
as Cape Farewell, but always at the distance of
forty-five or fifty miles from the coast, on account
of the masses of ice; and he repaired to the western
coast of Greenland, from whence he returned to
Denmark.
1
ZACCHARIAH GILLAM. 1668.
The lapse of forty years nearly without any at-
tempt being made for the discovery of a passage
into the South Seas, either by the north-east or the
1668.
255
ZACCHARIAH GILLAM.
north-west, is the strongest proof of the light in
which the voyages of Fox and James had been
considered; and that all further attempts were
looked upon as hopeless. It would appear, however,
that a voyage had been undertaken to Hudson's
Bay, in the intermediate time, from New England,
either for the purpose of fishing or discovery. The
French, after possessing themselves of Canada,
crossed over the land to the shores of Hudson's
Bay. Among the first was one M. de Grosseliez,
a bold and enterprizing man, who, seeing the ad-
vantage that might be derived to the French set-
tlements in North America, by possessing them-
selves of the ports and harbours of Hudson's Bay,
prevailed on some of his countrymen at Quebec,
to fit out a ship for the purpose of exploring the
coasts of that bay, in which he proceeded himself.
Having landed late in the season on the western
side of the bay, near to Nelson's River, some of his
people returned with an account of their having
discovered an English settlement; upon which he
proposed to attack and, if possible, to take posses-
sion of it; but, on approaching the spot, a solitary
hut only was discovered, in which were found
half a dozen miserable wretches on the point of
perishing from disease and famine. These unhappy
men told Grosseliez, they were part of the crew
of a ship from Boston, who had been sent on shore
to look out for a proper place for the ship, to which
they belonged, to lie in safety during the winter, and
256
1668.
DISCOVERIES OF
that while on this service the ship had been driven
away with the ice by a storm from her anchorage,
and had never returned. This part of the story
seems to rest on the authority of M. Jeremie, the
governor of Port Nelson, after it had fallen into
the hands of the French; but, whether true or false,
it appears to have given rise to one of those inge-
nious fabrications which were frequently the
means of keeping alive a spirit of discovery when
otherwise it might probably have died away. The
fabrication alluded to is the account of a Spanish
expedition from the South Sea, through the interior
of America, by means of rivers and lakes, into the
Northern Atlantic. It first appeared in an English
dress, and in an English periodical publication,
called The Monthly Miscellany, or, Memoirs for the
Curious, for the month of April, in the year 1708.
The name of the Admiral, selected for the com-
mander of this expedition, was De Fonte, a name
mentioned by the burgomaster Witsen, as being
celebrated for a voyage to Terra del Fuego, made
in 1640, at the cost of the King of Spain. This
admiral, passing up the gulf of California, dis-
patches one Barnarda up a fair river into a lake full
of islands, which he names Valasco, where he left
his ship and proceeded several hundred leagues in
large Indian canoes, called Periagos. At the same
time the admiral got into the Lake Belle, and, passing
through a strait to the eastward, came to an Indian
town, where he learnt that at a little distance from
1668.
257
ZACCHARIAH GILLAM.
thence lay a great ship; he accordingly sailed thither,
and found only one man advanced in years and a
youth; the ship, they told him, was of New Eng-
land, from a town called Boston; presently the owner
himself appeared, whose name was Seimor Gibbons,
along with Captain Shapeley, the pilot or navigator
of the vessel. In the meantime Barnarda sent in-
telligence that there was no communication out of
the Spanish sea by Davis's Strait, which terminated
in a fresh lake of about thirty miles in circum-
ference in the 80th degree of north latitude-and
this spurious admiral De Fonte ends his narrative
by saying that he returned home, "having found
that there was no passage into the South Sea by
that which is called the north-west passage.
This "adventurous piece of geography," as
Captain Burney calls it,* had also, like the voyage
of Maldonado, its defenders in two members of
the French academy, Messrs. De L'Isle and P.
Buache, the former of whom not only translated
the English narrative, but accompanied it with a
map, drawn jointly between him and Buache, by
way of illustrating the routes of De Fonte, and his
Captain Barnarda. Mr. Dalrymple, however, con-
ceived it to be an idle piece of invention by one
Petiver, a contributor to the above mentioned
Miscellany," in which it first appeared; at any
66
* Chronological History of Voyages and Discoveries, vol.
iii. p. 196.
VOL. I.
S
258
1668.
DISCOVERIES OF
rate, if it had not made at the time some noise
in the world, it would now be wholly undeserving
of notice.
To return to Grosseliez. Having explored the
country bordering on Nelson's River, he departed
for Canada, leaving his nephew Chouart with five
men to winter there; but some disagreement arising
between him and his employers, he sent over his
brother-in-law to France, to lay before the govern-
ment a representation of the advantages which
might be derived from an establishment on the
coast of Hudson's Bay. The project however was
treated as visionary; but so strongly convinced
was Grosseliez of its great utility, that he set out
himself for Paris, where he met with no better suc-
cess than his brother-in-law had done. The only
reason assigned for this indifference of the French
government, to form any establishment on the
shores of Hudson's Bay, is the dismal account
given of the climate, in Captain James's narrative,
which deterred them from attempting such a
project. Mr. Montague was at that time the
English minister at Paris; and hearing of the pro-
posal of Grosseliez, and its rejection by the
French government, sent for him to explain his
views; they appeared so satisfactory to the
English minister that he gave him a letter to
Prince Rupert, with which he came over to
England. Here he met with a different reception
from that of his countrymen; he was imme-
1668.
259
ZACCHARIAH GILLAM.
diately engaged to go out in one of his Majesty's
ships, which was taken up for the voyage, not
merely to form a settlement, but also to prosecute
the oft attempted passage to China, by the north-
west. In a letter from Mr. Oldenburgh, the first
secretary to the Royal Society, addressed to the
celebrated Mr. Boyle, he says, "surely I need not
tell you from hence what is said here with great
joy of the discovery of a north-west passage made
by two English and one Frenchman, lately repre-
sented by them to his Majesty at Oxford, and
answered by the Royal grant of a vessel to sail
into Hudson's Bay, and thence into the South Sea;
these men affirming, as I heard, that with a boat
they went out of a lake in Canada, into a river,
which discharged itself north-west into the south
sea, into which they went and returned north-east
into Hudson's Bay."
CAPTAIN ZACCHARIAH GILLAM was appointed to
carry out the Frenchman to Hudson's Bay, and to
make discoveries to the northward. He sailed in the
summer of 1668, and is said to have proceeded as
far north up Davis's Strait as 75°, but nothing
appears on record to justify such an assertion. On
his return into Hudson's Bay, he entered Rupert's
River on the 29th September, and prepared to pass
the winter there. The river was not frozen over
before the 9th December; and though considerably
to the northward of Charlton Island, where James
wintered, no complaint is made by Gillam of the
S2
260
1668.
DISCOVERIES OF
severity or long continuance of the cold, which,
on the contrary, is said to have ceased in the month
of April. At this place Captain Gillam laid the
foundation of the first English settlement, by
building a small stone fort, to which he gave the
name of Fort Charles.
Prince Rupert did not content himself with merely
patronizing the voyage of Gillam. He obtained
from King Charles a charter, dated in 1669, granted
to himself and several other adventurers therein
named, for having, at their own cost and charges,
undertaken an expedition to Hudson's Bay, for
the discovery of a new passage into the South Sea,
and for the finding of some trade for furs, minerals,
and other considerable commodities; it stated that
they had already made such discoveries as en-
couraged them to proceed farther in pursuance of
their said design; and that by means thereof great
advantage might probably arise to the King and
his dominions; and therefore his Majesty, for the
better promoting of their endeavours for the good
of his people, was pleased to confer on them, ex-
clusively, all the land and territories in Hudson's
Bay, together with all the trade thereof, and all
others which they should acquire, &c. This ex-
traordinary charter, with its sweeping privileges,
has continued to be vested to this day in the Hud-
son's Bay Company.
The body of gentlemen and merchants, thus
incorporated, soon proved itself to be a body with-
out a spirit, as far as discovery formed a part of
{
1676.
261
ZACCHARIAH GILLAM.
the original design, though this was the chicf
plea on which the charter had been granted.
Their whole attention was turned to the establish-
ment of forts and factories and to extend their
trade with the Indians; from whom they pro-
cured the most valuable furs for articles of very
trifling cost. In this prosperous state of affairs,
the north-west passage seems to have been entirely
forgotten, not only by the adventurers who had
obtained their exclusive charter under this pretext,
but also by the nation at large; at least nothing
more appears to have been heard on the subject
for more than half a century. In the meantime,
however, the public attention was once more
awakened to the possibility of discovering a passage
to the Indian seas by the north-eastward; a new
voyage was projected with this design, and was
sanctioned by the same monarch who had granted
such exclusive privileges to the Hudson's Bay
Company.
JOHN WOOD AND WILLIAM FLAWES. 1676.
The question of a north-eastern passage to
China had been set at rest in England for more
than a century, when it was once more revived
by the appearance of a paper in the Transactions
of the Royal Society of London, in 1675. This
volume of the Philosophical Transactions contained
a short statement of a voyage fitted out by a com-
s 3
262
1676.
DISCOVERIES OF
pany of merchants in Holland for the purpose of
making northern discoveries; it stated that the
ship employed in this voyage had brought back an
account of her having sailed to the north-eastward
of Nova Zembla several hundred leagues, between
the parallels of 70° and 80°; and that the sea in
that direction was found to be perfectly open and
free from ice; that, in consequence of the naviga-
tion of this part of the Tartarian Sea being so
easy and uninterrupted, and the passage to China
by that route so nearly certain, these merchants
had solicited the States-General for a charter, by
which the advantages that would result from the
discovery of a north-east passage to the Indian
seas should be secured exclusively to the adventu-
rers; which however was refused through the in-
trigues and representations of the Dutch East India
Company, to whom already an exclusive charter
had been granted.* About this time also there was
a very current report of several Dutch ships having
circumnavigated Spitzbergen, and that they found
the sea open on all sides of it; and another story,
equally current, was, that it had been discovered,
in searching the journals of Dutch whalers, that,
in the year 1655, a certain ship had proceeded to
within one degree of the north pole; and that, on
three different journals which were kept in the same
ship being produced, they all agreed as to an ob-
* Philosophical Transactions. 1675.
1676.
269
WOOD AND FLAWES.
servation taken by the master on the 1st August,
1655, which determined the latitude to be 88° 56′;
and it was further asserted that particular mention
was made in these journals, of the sea being there
entirely clear of ice, and that it was a hollow roll-
ing sea, like that of the Bay of Biscay. There was
besides published, about this time, "A brief Dis-
course by Joseph Moxon, fellow of the Royal Soci-
ety,” in which the probability of a passage by the
north pole to Japan is strongly contended for, and
which this ingenious writer conceives to be practi-
cable, from the circumstance of our having no know-
ledge of any land lying within eight degrees about
the pole; and because he had reason to believe, on
the contrary, "that there is a free and open sea under
the very pole."-As the ground of this belief, he
assigns the following circumstance. "Being about
twenty-two years ago in Amsterdam, I went into a
drinking-house to drink a cup of beer for my thirst,
and sitting by the public fire, among several peo-
ple, there happened a seaman to come in, who,
seeing a friend of his there, whom he knew went
in the Greenland voyage, wondered to see him,
because it was not yet time for the Greenland
fleet to come home, and asked him what accident
brought him home so soon; his friend (who was
the steer-man aforesaid in a Greenland ship that
summer) told him, that their ship went not out to
fish that summer, but only to take in the lading
of the whole fleet, to bring it to an early market.
$ 4
264
1676.
DISCOVERIES OF
But, said he, before the fleet had caught fish
enough to lade us, we, by order of the Green-
land Company, sailed unto the north pole and
came back again. Whereupon (his relation
being novel to me) I entered into discourse with
him, and seemed to question the truth of what he
said; but he did ensure me it was true, and that
the ship was then in Amsterdam, and many of
the seamen belonging to her to justify the truth
of it; and told me moreover, that they had sailed
two degrees beyond the pole. I asked him if they
found no land or islands about the pole? He told
me—No, there was a free and open sea. I asked
him if him if they did not meet with a great deal of
ice? He told me, No, they saw no ice: I asked him
what weather they had there? He told me fine warm
weather, such as was at Amsterdam in the sum-
mer time, and as hot. I should have asked him
more questions, but that he was engaged in dis-
course with his friend, and I could not in modesty
interrupt them longer."*
Such accounts as these were amply sufficient to
revive the notion of a north or north-east passage,
which had so long lain dormant. It has generally
happened, in this country, that some individual more
sanguine than the rest of the community has, by
*A Brief Discourse, &c. By Joseph Moxon. Harris's Voyages,
vol. . p.
. p. Possibility of approaching the North Pole, asserted
by Hon. D. Barrington.
1676.
265
WOOD AND FLAWES.
his superior knowledge, greater exertions, or more
constant perseverance, succeeded in bringing about
a project to bear, which, in less vigorous or pertina-
cious hands, would have been suffered to die away.
CAPTAIN JOHN WOOD appears to have been a man
of this stamp; he was known as an active and ex-
perienced seaman, who had accompanied Sir John
Narborough on his voyage through the straits of
Magellan; and he now stood forward as the warm
advocate for the practicability of sailing by the
northward or the north-eastward to the Indian seas
and China, an opinion which he supported in a
memorial to the king, assigning seven distinct
reasons, and three arguments, for the existence of
such a passage.
His reasons were-1. That Captain Barentz had
been of opinion that the ice did not extend above
twenty leagues from the shores of Greenland and
Nova Zembla, and that the intermediate space of
one hundred and sixty leagues was open sea. 2.
That by a letter from Holland, published in the
Philosophical Transactions, it appeared that the
Russians had discovered the sea to be open on the
north of Nova Zembla. 3. That from the report
of some Dutchmen wrecked on the coast of Corea,
it appeared that whales were caught on that coast
with English and Dutch harpoons in them. 4.
The story of the Dutchman told to Mr. Joseph
Moxon. 5. The story of the Dutch ship that
went within one degree of the pole, told to him by
Captain Goulden. 6. The report of Captain
266
1676.
DISCOVERIES OF
Goulden that all the drift-wood found in Green-
land was eaten to the very heart with the sea-
Worm. 7. The relation of two ships which had
sailed three hundred leagues to the east of Nova
Zembla, published in the Philosophical Trans-
actions. His arguments were-1. That the pole
was fully as warm as under the arctic circle, and
that the experience of Greenlanders proved this.
2. Something about winds and fogs, not very intel-
ligible; and 3. That the magnetic influence would
not prevent a safe passage across the pole.
These reasons and arguments, together with a
polar draught, were presented to his Majesty and
the Duke of York. At a board of Admiralty, at
which the king, as usual in those days, was pre-
sent, it was ordered that the Speedwell should be
appropriated to this service and the command of
her given to Captain Wood. And as all voyages
of discovery are liable to accidents, the Duke of
York, with several noblemen and gentlemen, pur-
chased a pink of 120 tons, called the Prosperous,
to accompany the Speedwell. To this pink CAP-
TAIN WILLIAM FLAWES was appointed as com-
mander. Both ships were well equipped for the
occasion, victualled for sixteen months, and sup-
plied with such commodities as were likely to turn
to the best account on the coast of Tartary and
Japan.
The two ships sailed from the Nore on the
28th of May, 1676, and seem to have doubled the
North Cape about the 19th of June; but the
1676.
267
WOOD AND FLAWES.
t
journal of Captain Wood is so meagre, that, if it
were not for his supposed latitudes and his situation
according to judgment," it is not easy to follow
his track or to trace his place on any particular
day. By the 22d, however, he had reached the
lat. 75° 59′, at which time the ice appeared about
a league from the ship, and the weather was cold
and snowy. They found many openings in the
ice which allowed them to proceed, and it is said
that the pieces of ice detached by the current
from the main field "represented the shapes of
trees, beasts, fishes and fowls." Among the ice
was observed some floating wood. On the 26th
they got sight of land, which was the west coast of
Nova Zembla. The depth of the sea was eighty
fathoms or 480 feet; yet so smooth and clear was
the water, that it is stated "they could discern
the ground very plain," and even discover the shells
at the bottom. On the 29th, on wearing the
Speedwell to avoid the ice, she struck upon a
ledge of rocks under water. Fortunately the
Prosperous pink was close at hand, though it does
not appear that she was then able to afford them
the least assistance. They had scarcely succeeded
in landing the bread and the carpenter's tools, to
rebuild the long boat, in the event of the Prospe-
rous not being able to approach them on account
of the ice, when the ship went entirely to pieces,
and the fog prevented them from seeing their con-
sort. All the crew, however, were safely got on
268
1676.
DISCOVERIES OF
shore, except two who were drowned in the pin-
nace, and all the bread, powder, and provisions
then in that boat were spoiled or lost. After the
ship had gone to pieces, this loss was amply repaid,
as several casks of flour, butter, beef and pork
were driven on shore, with spars and other articles,
sufficient for making tents and for fuel. No
human inhabitants made their appearance, but a
great white bear seized hold of the gunner, who,
by giving immediate alarm, was saved from his
jaws, and the bear killed.
They remained on shore nine days, in a situ-
ation of the greatest anxiety, and but ill provided
with provisions, ammunition, and clothing; and
without seeing any thing of the Prosperous on ac-
count of the foggy weather. At the end of this
period it was proposed to set out by land towards
Waigatz, in the hope of meeting with some Russian
vessel to transport them to the continent; when,
just at this time, to their unspeakable joy, they es-
pied, on the 8th July, the Prosperous, on which
they made a great fire to point out their situ-
ation; and on the same day the whole got safely on
board that ship. It is not difficult to foresee what
would have been the consequences to the whole
party had they proceeded; for, as the boat could not
carry above thirty men, and there were sixty-six in
the whole, "this," Wood observes, "occasioned no
small discontent among us, every one challenging
the same right with the others; all I could do in
1676.
269
WOOD AND FLAWES.
this exigency was to let the brandy-bottle go round,
which kept them always fox'd, till the 8th July
(the ninth day after we had been on shore) Captain
Flawes came so seasonably to our relief." From
this time the journal is continued by Captain
Flawes; but as it contains only the courses steered
and the distances run in the homeward voyage, it
is unnecessary to take any further notice of it.
Captain Wood, having thus lost his ship without
making the smallest advancement of new dis-
covery, and without having approached by many
degrees, either in latitude or longitude, the points
already reached by former navigators, boldly de-
cides that he was led into error by following the
opinion of William Barentz; that all the Dutch
and English relations were false; that Nova Zembla
and Greenland (Spitzbergen) are one and the
same continent; and that it is unknown hitherto
whether Nova Zembla be an isle or adjoining to
the continent of Great Tartary.
"In justice,
"to the me-
however," says Daines Barrington,
mories of both English and Dutch navigators, I
cannot but take notice of these very peremptory
and ill-founded reflections made by Wood, and
which seem to be dictated merely by his disap-
pointment in not being able to effect his dis-
covery.
"*
From a memorandum in Evelyn's Diary, recently
* Possibility of approaching the North Pole.
270
DISCOVERIES OF WOOD AND FLAWES. 1676.
published, it would appear that in the same year
that Wood proceeded to the north-east, a Captain
Baker had been sent on a voyage of discovery to
the north-west, though no voyage of the kind can
be traced in that year, either at the instance of the
public, or of private adventurers; certainly none
but that of the Speedwell was fitted out by the
Admiralty. The minute in the diary therefore
most probably alludes to the voyage of Wood
and if so, it contains mistakes very unusual to a
man of Evelyn's character for sound intelligence
and strict accuracy. He says, " 1676, July 26, I
dined at the Admiralty with Secretary Pepys, and
supped at the Lord Chamberlain's.
Here was
Captain Baker, who had been lately on the attempt
of the north-west passage. He reported prodigious
depth of ice, blue as a sapphire, and as trans-
parent. The thick mists were their chiefe impe-
diment and cause of their return.
"*
There can be little doubt that this odd jumble
of mistakes, in the date, names, and objects, was
meant to refer to Wood's failure, which, to use the
words of a learned writer, "seems to have closed
the long list of unfortunate northern expeditions
in that century; and the discovery, if not abso-
lutely despaired of, by being so often missed,
ceased for many years to be sought for."†
* Memoirs of Evelyn, &c.—Diary, July 26th, 1676.
+ Introduction to Cook's last Voyage by Doctor Douglas, p. 28.
( 271 )
CHAPTER IV.
DISCOVERIES IN THE NORTHERN REGIONS DURING
THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
Knight, Barlow, Vaughan, and Scroggs-Middleton and
Moor-Moor and Smith
Hearne-Phipps-Cook and
Clerke-Pickersgill-Young-Duncan-Lowenorn and
Egede-Mackenzie.
JAMES KNIGHT, GEORGE BARLOW, DAVID VAUGHAN,
AND JOHN SCROGGS. 1719 to 1722.
Or the unfortunate voyage, undertaken by
KNIGHT, BARLOW, and VAUGHAN, very little was
ever collected, as the two ships sent out upon it
were lost and the whole of their crews perished.
MR. KNIGHT, with whom it originated, had been
long in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company,
and was ultimately appointed Governor of the
factory established on Nelson's River. In his
communications with the native Indians he had
learned, that at some distance to the northward,
and on the banks of a navigable river or inlet, into
which vessels might go from the bay, there was
a rich mine of native copper. On the strength
272
1719 to
DISCOVERIES OF KNIGHT,
of this information he came over to England to
solicit the Company to fit out two vessels, and
send them, under his command, to discover this
rich mine; but the Company, for certain reasons
which were construed unfavourably to the liberal
views of the directors, refused to comply with the
proposal of their Governor. Knight, however,
did not give up his point. He plainly told them
that they were obliged by their charter to make
discoveries, as well as to extend their trade; that
they were particularly required to search for a
north-west passage through the straits of Anian
to the South Sea; and that if they still refused
to send him and Barlow on a voyage of discovery,
he should lay his application before the ministers
of the crown; and for this purpose he actually
waited on one of the secretaries of state. When
the Company perceived him thus resolutely bent
on his project, and that his "troublesome zeal,"
as Robson calls it, "might actually bring on an
enquiry into the legality of their charter,"* they
thought it necessary to comply, and fitted out a ship
and sloop called the Albany and the Discovery, the
former commanded by CAPTAIN GEORGE BARLOW
and the other by CAPTAIN DAVID VAUGHAN;
Mr. Knight being however entrusted with the
sole direction of the expedition. Perhaps they
* An Account of Six Years Residence in Hudson's Bay. By
Joseph Robson, Appen. p. 37.
1
1722. BARLOW, VAUGHAN, AND SCROGGS. 273
had the less scruple in sending Knight as, by
Robson's account, he must have been nearly
eighty years of age when he undertook this
voyage; of the success of which he was so con-
fident, that he had strong chests made, bound with
iron, to hold the gold and copper which he ex-
pected to find. This was probably the single
object that occupied the mind of Knight; the
north-west passage and the straits of Anian were
thrown out with no other view than to urge the
Company, and to point out to them the necessity,
to do something which might wear the appearance
at least of satisfying the conditions of their charter.
Knight is accordingly, by his instructions,
directed "to depart from Gravesend on the in-
tended voyage, by God's permission, to find out
the straits of Anian, in order to discover gold and
other valuable commodities to the northward."
As neither of these ships ever returned or were
heard of, it was concluded they had been lost
among the ice, or shut up in some creek or strait
from which they had no means of returning; and
as the Hudson's Bay Company had sent out these
two vessels, they could not do otherwise than
dispatch another to look for the unfortunate crews.
The Whalebone was accordingly ordered to proceed
on this service. The person appointed to com-
mand her was JOHN SCROGGS, of whose proceedings
nothing was ever published, except a brief abstract
procured by Mr. Arthur Dobbs. From this account
VOL. I.
T
274
1719 to
DISCOVERIES OF KNIGHT,
,
we learn, that he sailed from Churchill River on
the 22d June, 1722. In latitude 62° he had
communication with the natives and traded with
them. In 64° 56′ he came to an anchor within
three leagues of the north shore, to the projecting
headland of which he gave the name of Whalebone
Point. Here he saw many black whales in the
water, and several deer on the land. "He had
two northern Indians with him who had wintered
at Churchill, and told him of a rich copper mine
somewhere in that country, upon the shore near
the surface of the earth, and they could direct the
sloop so near it as to lay her side to it, and be
soon loaded with it; they had brought some
pieces of copper from it to Churchill, that made
it evident there was a mine thereabouts. They
had sketched out the country with charcoal upon
a skin of parchment before they left Churchill,
and so far as they went it agreed very well.”*
In latitude 64° 8', being then in the Welcome,
he saw many whales, but no ice. The land from
Whalebone Point fell off to the southward of
west, and the men who went on shore said they
perceived nothing to prevent their going farther;
their soundings here were from 40 to 60 fathoms.
Captain Norton, late Governor of Churchill, who
was then with Scroggs, confirmed all that the
latter had stated; said that the tide rose thirty
* An Account of the Countries adjoining to Hudson's Bay. By
Arthur Dobbs, Esq. p. 80.
1722. BARLOW, VAUGHAN, And Scroggs.
SCROGGS.
275
feet; that being on shore at the top of a mountain
he saw the land fall away to the southward of
west, and nothing to prevent their going farther.
In this account there is not a syllable mentioned
of any search being made for the unfortunate
crews of the two ships; not a single inquiry
whether they might be living, or be destroyed by
the natives, or have perished from cold and hunger.
Many persons, indeed, were sanguine enough
to conjecture that Knight and Barlow had dis-
covered the north-west passage, and had pro-
ceeded through it into the South Sea to return by
the way of Cape Horn; but two years having
expired put an end to these delusive hopes: and
it was not before the year 1767 that the most un-
equivocal proofs were discovered of the melancholy
fate of these adventurers, and of the whole of
their party.
In that year, as some of the boats employed on
the Company's whale fishery, near Marble Island,
stood in close to the shore, they discovered a new
and commodious harbour near the east end of it,
at the head of which were found guns, anchors,
cables, bricks, a smith's anvil, and several other
articles, which, from their weight or uselessness,
had not been removed from their original place by
the natives. The remains of a house, and the hulls
or rather bottoms of the two ships were also dis-
covered under water; and some of their guns and
the figure-head of one of the ships were sent home
T 2
276
1719 to
DISCOVERIES OF KNIGHT,
to England. The following account, given by
Hearne, points out the misery to which these poor
people must have been reduced on this desolate
island.
"In the summer of 1769, while we were pro-
secuting the fishery, we saw several Esquimaux
at this new harbour, and perceiving one or two
of them greatly advanced in years, our curi-
osity was excited to ask them some questions
concerning the above ship and sloop, which we
were the better enabled to do by the assistance of
an Esquimaux, who was then in the Company's
service as a linguist and annually sailed in one of
their vessels in that character. The account
which we received from them was full, clear, and
unreserved, and the sum of it was to the following
purport.
When the vessels arrived at this place (Marble
Island) it was very late in the fall, and, in getting
them into the harbour, the largest received much
damage; but on being fairly in, the English
began to build the house, their number at that
time seeming to be about fifty. As soon as the
ice permitted, in the following summer, 1720, the
Esquimaux paid them another visit, by which
time the number of the English was very greatly
reduced, and those that were living seemed very
unhealthy. According to the account given by
the Esquimaux they were then very busily em-
ployed, but about what they could not easily de-
scribe; probably in lengthening the long-boat, for,
1
1722. BARLOW, VAUGHAN, AND SCROGGS.
277
at a little distance from the house, there was now
lying a great quantity of oak chips, which had
been made most assuredly by carpenters.
"A sickness and famine occasioned such
havock among the English that, by the setting in
of the second winter, their number was reduced
to twenty. That winter, 1720, some of the
Esquimaux took up their abode on the opposite
side of the harbour to that on which the English
had built their houses, and frequently supplied
them with such provisions as they had, which
chiefly consisted of whale's blubber, and seal's
flesh, and train oil. When the spring advanced,
the Esquimaux went to the continent, and on
their visiting Marble Island again, in the summer
of 1721, they only found five of the English
alive; and those were in such distress for pro-
visions, that they eagerly eat the seal's flesh and
whale's blubber quite raw as they purchased it
from the natives. This disordered them so much
that three of them died in a few days, and the
other two, though very weak, made a shift to
bury them. Those two survived many days after
the rest, and frequently went to the top of an
adjacent rock and earnestly looked to the south
and east, as if in expectation of some vessels com-
ing to their relief. After continuing there a con-
siderable time together, and nothing appearing in
sight, they sat down close together and wept
bitterly. At length one of the two died, and the
T 3
278
1741.
DISCOVERIES OF
other's strength was so far exhausted, that he fell
down and died also in attempting to dig a grave
for his companion. The sculls and other large
bones of those two men are now lying above
ground close to the house. The longest liver was,
according to the Esquimaux account, always em-
ployed in working iron into implements for them;
probably he was the armourer or smith."*
CHRISTOPHER MIDDLETON. 1741.
The circumstances mentioned by Scroggs and
Barlow respecting the tides, and the whales ob-
served in the Welcome, the copper mine from
which there was so easy a communication with
the sea, and the chart made by the native Indians,
were considered by a gentleman of the name of
Dobbs as being such decisive proofs of a passage
into the Great Western Ocean, that, by dint of
persuasion, solicitation, and importunity, he suc-
ceeded in prevailing on the Hudson's Bay Com-
pany to send out two small vessels, for the purpose
of examining the eastern coast of the Welcome
to the northward of their settlements; and these
ships sailed accordingly on this service in the year
1737. It does not appear that any account of their
* Journey from Prince of Wales's Fort in Hudson's Bay to the
Northern Ocean. By Samuel Hearne. Introd. p. xxxi.
1741.
279
CHRISTOPHER MIDDLETON.
proceedings was ever published; but they are
supposed to have reached only to about 62° of
northern latitude, confirming however the former
reports of Fox, Button, and Scroggs with regard
to the set of the tide from the northward.
Mr. Dobbs, it seems, was by no means satisfied
with the proceedings of these two vessels. Indeed
he treats the Hudson's Bay Company with very
little ceremony, accusing them of intentionally
preventing rather than encouraging discoveries.
"The Company," he says, " avoid all they can
making discoveries to the northward of Churchill,
or extending their trade that way, for fear they
should discover a passage to the western ocean of
America, and tempt by that means the rest of
the English merchants to lay open their trade,
which they know they have no legal right to;
which, if the passage was found, would not only
animate the rest of the merchants to pursue the
trade through that passage, but also to find out the
great advantages that might be made of the trade
of the rivers and countries adjoining to the bay,
by which means they would lose their beloved
monopoly; but though they are fully informed of
a fine copper mine, on a navigable arm of the sea
north-westward of Whale Cove, and the Indians
have offered to carry their sloops to it, yet their
fear of discovering the passage puts bounds to
their avarice and prevents their going to the mine,
which by all accounts is very rich; and the
T 4
280
1741.
DISCOVERIES OF
་
it
Indians, who have been often at the mine, say
is upon a navigable arm of the sea of great depth,
leading to the south-west, where are great numbers
of large black fish spouting water, which confirms
the opinion, that all the whales seen between
Whale Cove and Wager River all come there from
the Western Ocean, since none are seen any where
else in Hudson's Bay or Strait."*
It is rather singular that, after expressing so
strong an opinion against the Company, he should
have entered into a correspondence with Captain
Middleton, who had for many years been in their
service, and, as would appear, not disposed to go
against their interests. The facts, however, which
he obtained from this gentleman confirmed his
former opinions, and rendered in his mind the
existence of a passage into the Pacific quite con-
clusive. On the strength of these facts he pre-
vailed on the Lords of the Admiralty to appropriate
* An Account of the Countries adjoining to Hudson's Bay. By
Arthur Dobbs, Esq. p. 48.-There can be little doubt that the
Hudson's Bay Company were for a long time exceedingly jealous
of their monopoly; and that they not only discouraged all
attempts at northern discovery, but withheld what little informa-
tion came to their knowledge; but of late years the governors of
this Company have liberally communicated whatever information
may have been sent to them respecting the geography and hy-
drography of Hudson's sea and lands adjoining, as Mr. Arrow-
smith can testify. That their servants have not been very active
in collecting information is quite true; but the fault is rather to
be ascribed to the individuals than to the Company.
1742.
281
CHRISTOPHER MIDDLETON.
a ship of the Navy for the purposes of discovery,
and to give the command of her to CAPTAIN
MIDDLETON. Accordingly the Furnace bomb
and the Discovery pink were put under his orders,
the latter being commanded by Mr. WILLIAM
MOOR.
Middleton left England in 1741, and passed the
winter in Churchill River, in latitude 58° 56′,
where he unaccountably was detained till the 1st
July, 1742. Leaving this river he stood along the
coast to the northward, and on the 4th saw Brook
Cobham, which had still much snow lying on it.
On the 10th he was in latitude 63° 51', longitude
88° 34', the Welcome being here eleven or twelve
leagues in width and full of floating ice, from the
upper part of which they procured fresh water for
the use of the ships' companies.
Having got through the ice, he observed, to the
northward of Cape Dobbs, another headland on
the north-west side of the Welcome in latitude
65° 12′, longitude 86° 6' W., beyond which was a
fair opening or river six or eight miles in width,
which extended within to the width of four or five
leagues. Into this opening the ships proceeded
to secure them from the ice, until it had dispersed
in the Welcome. The entrance into this river,
called the Wager, lies in latitude 65° 23′. The ice
floated in and out with the flood and ebb tides, but
a good anchorage was found on the northern side
free from the ice in a cove which he called Savage
Sound.
282
1742.
DISCOVERIES OF
On the 15th, a lieutenant with nine men well
armed were sent in a boat to examine the river;
they returned on the 17th, having gone as far up
as the ice would permit and until they found it to
extend from side to side. The ships therefore fell
down the river on the 21st, when, from a high hill
a few miles above the entrance, it was perceived
that the Welcome was still full of ice from side to
side. In one of the excursions up the river it
was reported that many black whales and other
fish had been observed, whereas none had made
their appearance where the ships were anchored,
nor below them. This circumstance afforded a
hope that there might be some other opening into
the Welcome than that by which they had entered.
The Lieutenant and the Master were accordingly
again sent up with directions to examine all the
coves on the northern shore of the Wager. After
four days absence they returned on the 1st August.
They reported that they had seen a great many
black whales of the whalebone kind; that they
had tried every opening they saw; and that they
constantly found the tide of flood coming from
the eastward or in at the mouth of the Wager.
This put an end to all expectations of finding any
outlet from the Wager besides that through which
they had entered it.
On the 4th of August the ships departed out of
the river. In latitude 65° 38', longitude 87° 7′ W.,
they entered another opening lying north-west of
1742.
283
CHRISTOPHER MIDDLETON.
Wager River thirteen leagues in width, and on the
following day they were in latitude 66° 14′, longi-
tude 86° 28′ W., at which place it had narrowed
to eight or nine leagues. Though the tide came
from the eastward, the appearance of a fair cape
or headland and the trending of the land
gave the
greatest joy, all believing that this cape would
prove the north-east point of America, and
Middleton therefore gave it the name of Cape Hope.
The next day, when the fog had cleared away,
they perceived the land to extend to westward of
north, making a deep bay; and standing on to-
wards the bottom of this bay, they saw plainly
that they could not proceed above six or eight
miles farther. On trying the set of the tide they
found it slack water, and concluded therefore that
they must have overshot the opening to the east-
ward at which the tide entered. Here Middleton
talks very unintelligibly of a frozen strait to the
eastward of them. On the 8th, he says, that,
at ten in the morning, he went on shore, taking
with him the gunner, carpenter, and his clerk, to
try if he could find from whence the flood came
into this strait or bay. He describes the entrance
of the frozen strait, among the islands on the east
side, as bearing east two leagues; he travelled, he
says, about fifteen miles, to the highest mountain
that overlooked the strait and east bay on the
other side, and saw the passage the flood came in
at; the narrowest part, he says, of this strait is
284
1742.
DISCOVERIES OF
four or five leagues, and five, six, and seven, in
the broadest, almost full of large and small islands,
and in length about sixteen or eighteen leagues;
to the westward it was full of ice, not broken up,
but fast in every part to the shoals and islands in
the strait. Finding no hope in that direction,
and the ice not being broken up, it was resolved
in council to try the other side of the Welcome,
from Cape Dobbs to Brook-Cobham, to know if
there was an opening there, and then return to
England.
They accordingly bore up on the 9th August,
stood away to the southward, and on the 15th,
after watering the ships at Brook-Cobham, Mid-
dleton set sail for England. On his arrival in
England, Mr. Dobbs at first appeared to be satisfied
that Middleton had done all that could be done,
and that a passage by the Welcome was im-
practicable. But some little time after, when in
Ireland, an anonymous letter was received by
Dobbs, stating, that the frozen strait was all a
chimæra, as was every thing which Middleton
had written concerning that part of the voyage.
This letter (which was afterwards discovered to
have been written by the Surgeon and the Cap-
tain's Clerk) aroused suspicions in the mind of
Dobbs that Middleton had not performed his
duty on further inquiry, he was satisfied that
this was the case; and finally accused him of
acting treacherously towards the government, and
1742.
285
CHRISTOPHER MIDDLETON.
of having taken a bribe of £5,000 from his old
employers not to make any discoveries. He de-
nies the bribe, but-seems to admit that he might
have said to some of the Company before he left
England, that he would discover the north-west
passage and yet that none of those who were with
him should be the wiser for it. The dispute ran
very high, and several of Middleton's officers
took part against him, swearing that he had mis-
represented facts, and tampered with them to con-
ceal the truth. Added to all which, Dobbs accused
him of not only having slighted examining the
material parts of the coast, and the direction and
height of the tide, where, by all former accounts,
there was the greatest probability of a passage;
but that "he even avoided the coast, and passed
great part in the night, and has given false ac-
counts of the course of the tides, and has made
an imaginary frozen strait, in order to bring a
tide of flood through it, to support the false facts
he has laid down in his journal, and published in
his chart of the course of the tide, from thence to
conclude that there is no passage," &c.*—and he
adds, "that his whole conduct, from his going to
Churchill until his return to England, and even
since his return, makes it plainly appear, that he
intended to serve the Company at the public ex-
*Account of the Countries adjoining to Hudson's Bay, by
Arthur Dobbs, Esq. p. 78..
7
286
1742.
DISCOVERIES OF MIDDLETON.
pense, and contrived every thing so as to stifle the
discovery, and to prevent others from undertaking
it for the future, so as to secure the favour of the
Company, and the reward he said they promised
him before he began the voyage.
""*
The Lords of the Admiralty called on Captain
Middleton to answer the strong charges preferred
against him by Mr. Dobbs, which he did in detail;
but the impression of bribery or treachery had
gone forth against him, and it does not appear
that the Board of Admiralty was satisfied with his
explanation, or, at least, that they approved of his
conduct, though he asks them for that approba-
tion. On the contrary, it may rather be inferred,
that they considered him culpable; and concurred
in opinion with Mr. Dobbs, in the great proba-
bility of a north-west passage, which Middleton
either would not, or from ignorance could not, dis-
cover; for the very next year after his return an
act of parliament was passed,† by which a re-
ward was offered of twenty thousand pounds to
the person or persons, being subjects of His
Majesty, who should discover a north-west pas-
sage through Hudson's Strait to the western and
northern ocean of America, a discovery which is
stated in the preamble to be " of great benefit and
advantage to the trade of this kingdom."
Account of the Countries adjoining to Hudson's Bay, by
Arthur Dobbs, Esq.-p. 84.
† 18 Geo. II. chap.
་
1746.
( 287 )
WILLIAM MOOR AND FRANCIS SMITH. 1746.
The public opinion in favour of the existence
of a north-west passage was not in the least
shaken by the failure of Captain Middleton. The
charges of misconduct brought against him by
Mr. Dobbs, and the arguments of that gentleman
in favour of such a passage, ultimately prevailed.
The implied disapprobation of this officer's con-
duct by the Lords Commissioners of the Ad-
miralty, and their recommendation of a liberal
reward to be granted for the discovery of such a
passage, had the effect that might have been ex-
pected. A plan was immediately set on foot for
fitting out an expedition of discovery; and to
defray the expenses it was proposed that a sub-
scription should be opened, for raising the sum of
ten thousand pounds, to be divided into one hun-
dred shares, of one hundred pounds each. A
Committee was appointed, and two small vessels
purchased, the Dobbs Galley, of 180 tons, and the
California, of 140 tons; the command of the
former was given to CAPTAIN WILLIAM MOOR,
and of the latter to CAPTAIN FRANCIS SMITH. Mr.
Ellis was engaged to proceed on the voyage, as
Agent for the Committee. Of this voyage two
accounts have been published, one by Mr. Ellis,
a plain, unaffected, intelligible narrative; the
other by
"the Clerk of the California," whose
i
288
1746.
DISCOVERIES OF
name was Drage, a pedantic, disputatious, dog-
matical performance. The following abstract is
taken from the journal of Mr. Ellis.*
The two ships dropped down to Gravesend on
the 20th May, 1746. They fell in with ice on the
27th June, in latitude 58° 30′, to the eastward of
Cape Farewell, and shortly after with abundance
of drift-wood, the origin of which causes some
vague and certainly erroneous speculations in Mr.
Ellis's mind, for he imagines it to come from the
west coast of Greenland, where he ought to have
known that no wood is produced. He also specu-
lates on the origin of those mountains of ice
which float down Davis's Strait, and inclines to
the opinion of Hans Egede, which is unques-
tionably the right one, of their original formation
being on the land.
The two ships passed the Resolution and the
Savage Islands, at the latter of which they had
communication with the Esquimaux, whose per-
sons, clothing, canoes, and implements are de-
scribed with great accuracy. Mr. Ellis observes,
that the approach to large islands or fields of ice
is always announced by the change in the tem-
perature from warm to cold, and generally by low
fogs suspended over it. He also observes, that
the refraction is so great, that it is not uncommon
* A Voyage to Hudson's Bay, by Henry Ellis.
1746.
289
MOOR AND SMITH.
to see the ice thrown above the horizon at least
six degrees.
On the 2d August they doubled Cape Digges,
passed Mansell's Islands, and on the 11th made the
land on the west side of the Welcome, in latitude
64° N. From hence they proceeded to Marble
Island, where they made some observations on the
tides and currents; and finding the flood tide
come down the coast from the northward, they
had great hopes of a passage; but the season
being advanced, it was resolved to bear up for
Port Nelson, as being the most eligible place for
passing the winter: they accordingly made sail for
that place on the 17th August; but on the 26th
the Dobbs grounded on the flats, near a place
called Five-fathom-hole, about seven miles from
Fort York. A beacon had been erected as a lead-
ing mark, which the Governor of the Hudson's
Bay Company caused to be cut down, though he
very well knew, says Mr. Ellis, who we were.
This was not all; he ordered them on no account
to come nearer the factory, without producing
a proper authority from the government or the
Hudson's Bay Company. The Dobbs however
got off, and, regardless of the threats of the Go-
vernor, both ships proceeded up Hayes River, and
moored in a creek about two miles above Fort York.
The people immediately set to work in digging
holes in the ground to bury their wine and beer,
and in building log huts to protect them from the
VOL. I.
U
290
1746.
DISCOVERIES OF
severity of the cold, frost, and snow,-" trouble-
some enough," says Mr. Ellis, "but not seeming
to merit the terrible reports given of these winters
by some authors;" alluding no doubt to the exag-
gerated statements of Captain James.
By the 1st November they were all com-
fortably hutted; but on the 2d, the frost was so
severe that they could not keep the ink from
freezing at the fire; the unburied bottled beer
was frozen solid near the fire; and the cold in-
creased to such a degree, that it was thought pru-
dent to remove the whole of the seamen out of
the ships into the log huts. It seems, however,
that the severity of cold is seldom felt above four
or five days in a month, and generally about the
full and change of the moon; at which times, the
wind is usually from the north-west, and very tem-
pestuous; but at other times, though there is a hard
frost, Mr. Ellis says it is pleasant enough; the winds
being variable and moderate, and the weather fa-
vourable for shooting or catching animals in traps,
chiefly rabbits and partridges, which they procured
in vast quantities. By constant exercise, when the
weather would admit of it, and by keeping good
fires of wood, and when burnt by stopping up
the chimney, they appear to have suffered very
little from the effects of cold; and we hear of none
of those wailings with which James's doleful narra-
tive is filled, at a place too full five leagues far-
ther to the southward on the same coast. Mr.
1746.
291
MOOR AND SMITH.
Ellis observes, that the difference was so great be-
tween the cold without and the heated huts within,
that persons, on entering the latter, frequently
fainted, and remained apparently lifeless for some
time; that if a door or window was but opened, the
cold air rushed in with great fury, and turned the
vapour, inclosed within the hut, into a snow shower.
The alternate freezing and thawing of the juices
of the logs caused them to split with a noise little
inferior to the report of a musket. Spirits of wine
did not freeze into ice, but became of the consist-
ence of oil. The different kinds of game, which
they procured between November and April, kept
easily in a frozen state for any length of time with-
out the use of salt. When any part of the human
body was frozen, it became hard and white like ice,
but by rubbing the part with a warm hand it went
off in a blister; if left alone the part mortified.
Extreme cold appeared to have pretty nearly the
same effect as extreme heat, and required nearly
the same treatment: of the absolute degree of cold
Mr. Ellis cannot speak, as they took out but one
thermometer, which was broken before they
reached the ice. It is noted, in manuscript, in the
margin of the copy of Mr. Ellis's book from
which this abstract is taken, "that the greatest
degree of cold observed (by the writer) at
Churchill was 45° below the cypher of Fahrenheit's
scale." The effects of the cold are sufficiently re-
markable—“ If we touch iron," says Mr. Ellis,
U 2
292
1746.
DISCOVERIES OF
"or any other smooth solid surface in the winter,
our fingers are froze fast to it; if, in drinking a
dram of brandy out of a glass, one's tongue or
lips touch it, in pulling it away, the skin is left
upon it. An odd instance of this sort happened
to one of our people, who was carrying a bottle of
spirits, from the house to his tent; for not having
a cork to stop the bottle, he made use of his
finger, which was soon froze fast, by which acci-
dent he lost a part of it to make a cure practicable.
All solid bodies, as glass, iron, ice and such like,
acquire a degree of cold so very intense, that they
resist the effects even of a strong heat, and that
too for a good while:"*-yet with all this the in-
habitants, according to Mr. Ellis, are neither un-
comfortable nor unhappy-nay, he asserts, that
Europeans even, who have lived here for some
years, prefer it to all other places; and that when
they leave it and come home with their ships, they
usually grow tired, in a few months, of a more
moderate climate, and wish with impatience for the
proper season, that may give them an opportunity
of re-visiting these frozen regions.
It was the 2d June before the winter finally
took leave of them, and enabled them to get the
vessels ready for dropping down to the mouth of
the river; and it was not till the 24th that they
succeeded in passing the shoals; they then stood to
* A Voyage to Hudson's Bay, by Henry Ellis, p. 181.
1746,
293
MOOR AND SMITH.
the northward for the purpose of discovery. To the
northward of Churchill they had a sea clear of ice.
In coasting along the shore and among islands Mr.
Ellis observes, that the needles of the compasses
lost their magnetical qualities, "one seeming to
act from this direction, and another under that,
and yet they were not for any considerable space
of time constant to any :" his speculations on this
fact, which has been remarked among the islands
of Hudson's Bay both before and since his time,
do not appear to throw much light on this phe-
nomenon, and are therefore omitted.
They proceeded to the northward as far 65° 5′
in the Welcome, where they found the flood tide
coming from the northward. This direction of
the tide, and their nearness to Wager Strait, con-
cerning which there had been so warm a dispute
between Mr. Dobbs and Captain Middleton, de-
termined the two Captains of the Dobbs and
California to enter upon an examination of it.
The entrance of this inlet is formed by Cape
Montague on the north, and Cape Dobbs on the
south. About five leagues within it, the width`is
contracted to about five miles, where the tide
rushes with so much impetuosity that Mr. Ellis
says, it seems like a sluice; beyond this it again
opens out, and forms several good harbours and
safe anchoring ground. At one hundred and fifty
miles from the entrance, the colour of the water
was found to be perfectly bright, and its taste
U 3
294
1746.
DISCOVERIES OF
very salt. At this place a fall or rapid extended
across the strait, which, however, the boats passed
without difficulty, and found the depth beyond it
increase so much that they had no bottom with 140
fathoms of like. The water at the surface was
fresh, but on sii king an empty bottle to the depth of
thirty fathome, it came up full of water as salt as
that in the Atlantic. Soon after this the water
suddenly shoaled, and it was discovered that the
inlet terminated in two unnavigable rivers, one of
which proceeded from a large lake lying to the
south-westward.
Being disappointed in not finding a passage
through Wager Strait, for so it was supposed to be,
it was proposed that they should examine another
opening to the northward, which appears to have
been Captain Middleton's frozen strait, or entrance
into what is now known as Repulse Bay. They had
sufficient encouragement to make this attempt, as
the farther they advanced to the northward along
this coast, the more flattering were the prospects of a
passage communicating with a great ocean, as the
tides were always higher and the time of high
water sooner than to the southward; and Mr.
Ellis says,
"the saltness and transparency of the
water in the Welcome was such, that one might
see the bottom at the depth of twelve or fourteen
fathoms;" to which he adds, "the numbers of
whales that were continually seen upon the coast,
}
1746.
295
MOOR AND SMITH.
and the repeated instances we had, that north-west
winds made abundantly the highest tides.'
""
A difference of opinion however prevailed
between the commanders and among the officers,
as to the propriety of proceeding to the examina-
tion of this bay, consistently with their instruc-
tions; and most of the party were evidently indis-
posed towards any further research, urging the
advanced season of the year, though it was only
the 7th August, and the winter seldom sets in till
the beginning or middle of October. After this
nothing was done nor even attempted; and a
council being held, it was determined to bear up
without further delay for England, which was ac-
cordingly put in execution; and on the 29th
August they reached the western entrance of
Hudson's Strait, with very pleasant warm weather,
which lasted till the 3d September; and, after
stopping some time at the Orkneys, arrived safely
in Yarmouth roads on the 14th October, after an
absence of one year, four months, and seventeen
days.
<<
Thus," says Mr. Ellis, "ended a voyage of
very great expectation, not only here, but through-
out the greatest part of Europe, more especially
the maritime countries, where the design, its
nature, consequences, and their great importance
were best understood. Thus, I say, ended this
voyage-without success indeed, but not without
effect; for though we did not discover a north-
U 4
296
1769 to
DISCOVERIES OF
west passage, yet were we so far from discovering
the impossibility or even improbability of it, that,
on the contrary, we returned with clearer and
fuller proofs, founded on the only evidence that
ought to take place in an inquiry of this nature,—
plain facts and accurate experiments, that evi-
dently shew such a passage there may be.”*
SAMUEL HEARNE. 1769 to 1772.
The unsatisfactory result of the voyage of the
Dobbs and California would appear to have
thrown a damp on the ardour of northern dis-
covery, which the parliamentary reward, liberal as
it was, failed to revive; and for nearly thirty
years no attempt whatever was made by sea,
either on the part of government or of individuals.
At length, however, the Hudson's Bay Company
undertook to make discoveries to the northward
by land, partly to look for a large river, on which
was said to be the copper mine so often mentioned,
and partly to obtain correct geographical informa-
tion; and Mr. HEARNE was pitched upon to
conduct this expedition.
He set out from the Fort Prince of Wales on
the 6th November, 1769, crossed the Seal River
and travelled over the barren grounds; but the
* A Voyage to Hudson's Bay, by Henry Ellis, p. 298.
1772.
297
SAMUEL HEARNE.
weather beginning to be excessively cold, all his
provisions expended, and no supply to be had, the
chief of the Indians who accompanied him wish-
ing to return, and ultimately leaving him, he was
obliged to retrace his steps, after reaching no
farther than about the 64th degree of latitude,
and arrived at the factory on the 11th December.
On the 23d February, 1770, he set out a second
time, accompanied by three northern and two
southern Indians. They continued to proceed
slowly to the northward and westward, living on
what the country afforded, which was sometimes.
most abundant and at others nothing at all-or, as
Hearne says,
"either all feasting or all famine;
sometimes we had too much, seldom just enough,
frequently too little, and often none at all. It
will be only necessary to say, that we have fasted
many times two whole days and nights, twice
upwards of three days, and once near seven days,
during which we tasted not a mouthful of any
thing, except a few cranberries, water, scraps of
old leather, and burnt bones."* Towards the end
of July his guide intimated to him that it was too
late that year to think of reaching the Copper
Mine River, and proposed spending the winter
among a tribe of Indians where they then were,
between the 63d and 64th degrees of latitude;
* Journey from Hudson's Bay to the Northern Ocean, by Samuel
Hearne, p. 33.
298
1769 to
DISCOVERIES OF
but on the 11th August, while making an obser-
vation for the latitude, a sudden gust of wind blew
down the quadrant, "and as the ground where it
stood was very stony, the bubbles, the sight vane
and vernier, were entirely broke to pieces, which
rendered the instrument useless. In consequence
of this misfortune I resolved to return again to
the fort, though we were then in the latitude of
63° 10′ north, and about 10° 40′ west longitude
from Churchill River."* Accordingly, after many
difficulties, and extreme hardships from the incle-
mency of the weather and from hunger, he arrived
at Prince of Wales's Fort on the 25th November,
after an absence of eight months and twenty-two
days.
On the 7th December Mr. Hearne again set out
for the third time to explore the northern parts of
North America, and particularly to discover the
situation of the copper mine. On the 1st July
he reaches a place called Congecathawhachaga,
which is not only remarkable on account of the
length of the name, but as being the only spot on
this long journey at which any observation was
made for the latitude; and even here no par-
ticulars are given, but merely an assertion, that
"during this time I had two observations, both by
meridional and double altitudes, the mean of
* Journey from Hudson's Bay to the Northern Ocean, by Samuel
Hearne, p. 106.
1
17/%.
299
SAMUEL HEARNE.
which determined the latitude of Congecathawha-
chaga to be 68° 46′ N., and its longitude was 24° 2′
W. from Prince of Wales's Fort, or 118° 15′ W. of
the meridian of London."
On the 13th of the same month he reached the
Copper Mine River, and on the 15th commenced
his survey of it. The Indians that accompanied
him live in constant hostility with the Esquimaux
inhabiting the lower part of the river, and now
prepared to attack them in their tents, to which
they approached on the 17th about one o'clock in
the morning," when finding all the Esquimaux
quiet in their tents, they rushed forth from their
ambuscade and fell on the poor unsuspecting
creatures, unperceived till close at the very eves
of their tents, when they soon began the bloody
massacre, while I stood neuter in the rear." It
seems that the little horde consisted of about
twenty persons, men, women, and children, who
were all put to death in the most barbarous and
inhuman manner.
Another small tribe of Esquimaux escaped the
brutal fury of the Indians: but "they threw all
the tents and tent-poles into the river, destroyed
a vast quantity of dried salmon, musk-oxen flesh,
and other provisions; broke all the stone kettles;
and in fact did all the mischief they possibly
could to distress the poor creatures they could not
murder, and who were standing as the woeful
spectators of their great or perhaps irreparable
loss."
300
1769 to
DISCOVERIES OF
After this piece of wantonness "we sat down,"
Hearne says, "and made a good meal of fresh
salmon." He adds, "It was then about five o'clock
in the morning of the 17th, the sea being in sight
from the north-west by west to the north-east,
about eight miles distant; I therefore set instantly
about commencing my survey, and pursued it to
the mouth of the river, which I found all the way
so full of shoals and falls that it was not navigable
for a boat, and that it emptied itself into the sea
over a ridge or bar."* The tide, he says, was
then out; but he judged from the marks on the
edge of the ice that it flowed about twelve or
fourteen feet; that, the tide being out, the water
in the river was perfectly fresh; but, he continues,
"I am certain of its being the sea, or some branch
of it, by the quantity of whalebone and seal's
skins which the Esquimaux had at their tents,
and also by the number of seals which I saw on
the ice." He says moreover, that at the mouth of
the river "the sea is full of islands and shoals" as
far as he could see with the assistance of a good
pocket telescope.
ઃઃ
It has been doubted whether Hearne ever reach-
ed the sea-coast, on the ground that the water in
the mouth of the river being perfectly fresh, when
the tide was out, is inconsistent with the flood rising
* Journey from Hudson's Bay to the Northern Ocean, by Samuel
Hearne, p. 162.
}
{
1772.
301
SAMUEL HEARNE.
!
fourteen feet. It might certainly have been ex-
pected that, after so long and hazardous a journey,
Mr. Hearne would have taken every possible care
to have ascertained in the most unequivocal manner
whether he really had reached the northern shore
of North America, and stood on the borders of the
hyperborean sea. If the tide was out in the morn-
ing of the 17th, it must have been in on the middle
part of the same day; and as he never quitted the
margin of the river, or the shore of the supposed
sea, till the morning of the 18th, and consequently
was there during the flowing and ebbing of two
distinct tides, it is certainly very unsatisfactory to
state merely that he judged its rise to be fourteen
feet by some marks that he perceived on the ice;
nor is it easy to comprehend how the water at the
mouth of a river, into which the tide flows and
rises fourteen feet, could have been perfectly
fresh.
Equally unsatisfactory is his statement as to the
latitude of the mouth of the Copper Mine River.
He says that a thick fog and drizzling rain came
on, and that "finding that neither the river nor
the sea were likely to be of any use, I did not
think it worth while to wait for fair weather to
determine the latitude exactly by an observation."
What then, it might be asked, did he go for? He
tells us, and it appears by his instructions, that he
was selected for the expedition because he knew
302
1769 to
DISCOVERIES OF
how to take an observation for the latitude; and
yet, during his long and interesting journey of
twelve or thirteen hundred miles and as many
back again, he takes but one solitary observation
to ascertain the latitude; which is the more un-
accountable as, by a remark of his own, he seldom
could have wanted opportunities to determine this
most essential point, without which the true geo-
graphy of this part of the continent may still be said
to remain in doubt. His remark is, that " in those
high latitudes, and at this season of the year, the
sun is always at a good height above the horizon,
so that he had not only day-light but sunshine the
whole night." Still, however, he tells us that the
latitude of the mouth of the river may be de-
pended on, though he does not mention in the
text what that latitude was; it is to be collected
only from the chart, in which it would appear to
be about 73° 30'. Now comparing his journey
after leaving Congecathawhachaga, where his
single observation was made and which gave him
68° 46′, and calculating by the courses and dis-
tances the difference of latitude between that
place and the mouth of the river, that difference
would not appear to exceed three degrees; so that
the latitude, which Mr. Hearne says
may be
depended on," and which on the chart is 73° 30′,
ought rather to be taken at 71° 46′.
Douglas, into whose hands the manuscript journal
was placed long before its publication, states the
66
Doctor
1772.
303
SAMUEL HEARNE.
latitude of the river's mouth to be 72°; but the
late Mr. Dalrymple, after carefully comparing
Hearne's distances and the direction in which he
travelled, with Canadian and other authorities, and
after him Mr. Arrowsmith and other geographers,
have agreed to cut down Mr. Hearne's latitude to
that of about 69°, which falls in pretty nearly
with that of the supposed sea-coast visited by
Mackenzie afterwards farther to the westward.
The correctness of Mr. Hearne's narrative may
be questioned in many respects. For instance, the
sun could not "always be a good height above the
horizon" in the latitude 69°, especially when he
was there, for his declination on the 18th July,
being about 20° N., he could have been only, in
the middle of the night of that day, just in the
horizon. In that part of his journal where the
expression occurs, and which is quoted by Doctor
Douglas, there is not a word of this "sunshine all
night." The journey of Mr. Hearne proved how-
ever the practicability of reaching the northern
shore, and it is much to be regretted that this
journey has not been followed up by the Hudson's
Bay Company,
:
CONSTATNINE JOHN PHIPPS. 1773.
The Honourable Daines Barrington having pre-
sented to the Royal Society a series of papers on
1
304
1773.
DISCOVERIES OF
the practicability of approaching the north pole,
the President and Council of that Society came to
the resolution of applying to the Earl of Sand-
wich, then first Lord of the Admiralty, to obtain
his Majesty's sanction for an expedition to be
fitted out for the purpose of trying how far navi-
gation might be practicable towards the north pole.
This expedition his Majesty was pleased to direct
should be immediately undertaken, "with every
encouragement that could countenance such an
enterprize, and every assistance that could con-
tribute to its success." Two ships, the Racehorse
and the Carcass, bombs, as being the strongest,
were therefore fixed upon as the most proper
for the purpose; the former having on board a
complement of ninety men, and the latter eighty,
with an additional number of officers. The com-
mand of the expedition was given to the Hon.
Captain CONSTANTINE JOHN PHIPPS, (afterwards
Lord Mulgrave,) who embarked in the Racehorse,
and Captain SKEFFINGTON LUTWIDGE was ap-
pointed to the command of the Carcass. Two
masters of Greenland ships were employed as
pilots. Mr. Israel Lyons was recommended by
the Board of Longitude as astronomer; and in-
struments of various kinds, of the best description
at that time in use, were sent on this interesting
voyage.
The two ships sailed from the Nore on the 10th
June, 1773. On the 27th they had an observation
1773.
305
CONSTANTINE JOHN ·
PHIPPS.
of the sun at midnight, which gave the latitude to
be 74° 26'; and in the evening of that day reached
the latitude of the south part of Spitzbergen with
a fair wind, without an increase of cold, and with-
out any appearance of ice or sight of land. A
piece of drift-wood, which was fir, was picked up,
and not worm-eaten. On the 29th they stood in
with the land, which was formed "by high, barren,
black rocks, without the least marks of vegetation;
in many places bare and pointed, in other parts
covered with snow, appearing even above the
clouds; the vallies between the high cliffs were
filled with snow or ice. This prospect would have
suggested the idea of perpetual winter, had not
the mildness of the weather, the smooth water,
bright sunshine, and constant daylight, given a
cheerfulness and novelty to the whole of this
striking and romantic scene."* On this day the
latitude observed was 77° 59′ 11″.
A mountain was measured which was fifteen
hundred and three yards in height. The weather
along the coast continued to be moderate and fine.
At midnight the latitude was 78° 23′ 46″; the dip
of the magnetic needle 80° 45'. On the 4th the
latitude of Magdalena Hoek was ascertained to
be 79° 34', the same as Fotherby observed it to be
in 1614. On the 5th they fell in with the main
body of the ice, along which they stood to as-
VOL. I.
* A Voyage towards the North Pole, p. 31.
X
306
1773.
DISCOVERIES OF
certain whether it joined to the land of Spitzber-
gen, or was so detached as to afford an opportunity
of passing to the eastward. But the pilots and
officers thought it impracticable to proceed in that
direction, and augured that they would probably
soon be beset where they were, as this was about the
spot where most of the old discoverers had been
stopped. With great difficulty they worked their
way through the more loose parts of the ice towards
the north-west. A heavy swell and thick weather
caused them to tack and to stand towards Hak-
luyt's Headland.
On the morning of the 9th the ice was found
to be quite fast to the west, being then in longi-
tude 2º 2′ E. by their reckoning, which Captain
Phipps observes was the farthest to the westward of
Spitzbergen they ever got on the voyage. In the
evening of the same day the latitude was 80° 36′.
Having run along the edge of the ice from east to
west above ten degrees, "I now," says Captain
Phipps, "began to conceive that the ice was one
compact impenetrable body.". He now stood over
to the eastward, and on the 13th came to anchor in
Vogelsang; a good roadstead, near a remarkable
point called Cloven Cliff, which is "a bare rock, so
called from the top of it resembling a cloven hoof,
which appearance it has always worn, having been
named by some of the first Dutch navigators who
frequented these seas. This rock, being entirely
detached from the other mountains, and joined to
1
1773.
307
CONSTANTINE JOHN PHIPPS.
the rest of the island by a low narrow isthmus,
preserves in all situations the same form, and,
being nearly perpendicular, it is never disguised
by snow:"* its latitude is 79° 53′ N., longitude 9°
59′ 30″ E.; the variation of the compass was 20°
38′ W. dip 82° 7. Here they ascertained the
going of the pendulum, which had been adjusted
to vibrate seconds in London. The thermometer
differed very little at noon and at midnight, being
58° at the former and 51° at the latter. On the
16th, the weather being fine and clear, the ther-
mometer in the shade rose, by exposure to the sun
for a few minutes, from 49° to 891°, and remained
so for some time, till a small breeze springing up
made it fall 10° almost instantly.
Again on the 18th the ships stood to the east-
ward, along the edge of the ice; but were for a
third time stopped about the same place, by
finding the ice locked in with the land, without
any passage either to the northward or the east-
ward. There were small openings, however, into
one of which they proceeded as far as 80° 34'.
For the fourth time Captain Phipps made an at-
tempt to get to the eastward; passed Moffen
Island, and in working among loose ice proceeded
as far to the northward, on the 27th, as 80° 48′ by
the reckoning, when they were stopped by the
main body of the ice, which extended in a line
* A Voyage towards the North Pole, p. 44.
X 2
508
1773.
DISCOVERIES OF
nearly east and west. By observation at midnight
the latitude was 80° 37', and their longitude the
following day, when in sight of the Seven Islands,
was 15° 16′ 45″ E.
Some of the officers landed on a low flat island
in the mouth of Waygat Strait, on which they
found several large fir trees lying on the shore,
sixteen or eighteen feet above the level of the sea;
some of them, seventy feet in length, had been torn
up by the roots, others had been cut down with an
axe and notched for twelve-feet lengths; this
timber was no ways decayed, or the strokes of the
hatchet in the least effaced. The beach was
formed of old timber, sand, and whale-bones.
The middle of this island was covered with moss,
scurvy grass, sorrel, and a few ranunculuses then
in flower. Two rein-deer were feeding on the
moss, one of which they killed, and found it fat
and of high flavour. On the return of the
officers they wounded a sea-horse, which dived
immediately and brought up with it a number of
others. They all joined in an attack upon the
boat, wrested an oar from one of the men, and
were with difficulty prevented from staving or
oversetting the boat.
On the 30th July the weather was exceedingly
fine and mild and unusually clear. "The scene,"
says Captain Phipps, "was beautiful and pictu-
resque; the two ships becalmed in a large bay,
with three apparent openings between the islands
1773.
309
CONSTANTINE JOHN PHIPPS.
that formed it, but every where surrounded with
ice as far as we could see, with some streams of
water; not a breath of air; the water perfectly
smooth; the ice covered with snow, low and even,
except a few broken pieces near the edges; the
pools of water in the middle of the pieces were
frozen over with young ice."*
The ships were now beset in the ice; and the
pilots, being much farther than they had ever
been, and the season advancing, seemed to be
alarmed at their situation. On the 1st August the
ice began to press in fast; there was not the
smallest opening. The ice, which had hitherto
been flat and almost level with the water's edge,
was now in many places forced higher than the
main yard by the pieces squeezing together. The
latitude was 80° 37', longitude 19° 0′ 15″ E. On
the 3d the men began to cut a passage through
the ice, and work through the small openings to
the westward; the ice was deep, having sawed
sometimes through pieces twelve feet thick; they
laboured a whole day without any success. The
ships drove with the ice and came into fourteen
fathom. After some deliberation, Captain Phipps
proposed to leave the ships and betake themselves
to the boats, which were hoisted out. This mea-
sure he conceived it necessary to take without
further delay, as the stay of the Dutch ships to
*A Voyage towards the North Pole, p. 60.
x 3
310
1773.
DISCOVERIES OF
the northward was very doubtful. On the 7th
they pushed away the launch to the westward,
and at the same time kept all sail on the ships to
force them through the ice; in this way they
worked to the westward, when on the 10th, the
wind, springing up to the N.N.E., forced the ships
through a great deal of very heavy ice and got
them into open water; and the following day
they reached Amsterdam Island, the westernmost
point of which is Hakluyt's Headland.
They anchored the same day in Fair Haven,
where is one of the most remarkable ice-bergs in
Spitzbergen. "Ice-bergs," observes Captain Phipps,
"are large bodies of ice filling the valleys between
the huge mountains; the face towards the sea is
nearly perpendicular, and of a very lively light
green colour. That represented in the engraving
was about three hundred feet high, with a cascade
of water issuing out of it. The black mountains,
white snow, and beautiful colour of the ice, make
a very romantic and uncommon picture. Large
pieces frequently break off from the icebergs and
fall with great noise into the water; we observed
one piece which had floated out into the bay and
grounded in twenty-four fathoms; it was fifty feet
high above the surface of the water, and of the
same beautiful colour as the ice-berg."
On the 19th they weighed anchor and again
""*
* A Voyage towards the North Pole, p. 70.
1773.
311
CONSTANTINE JOHN PHIPPS.
stood out to sea; but as the season was now so far
advanced, and as fogs and gales of wind might
constantly be expected, Captain Phipps determined
to bear up for England, and on the 25th September
arrived at the Nore. Captain Phipps seems to
think that "the summer was uncommonly favour-
able for his purpose," because it "afforded him
the fullest opportunity of ascertaining repeatedly
the situation of that wall of ice, extending for
more than twenty degrees between the latitudes
of eighty and eighty-one, without the smallest
appearance of any opening." There is reason to
believe, however, that few years occur in which
there are not many openings in the wall of ice
which usually stretches between the eastern coast
of Greenland and the northern-most parts of
Spitzbergen, and consequently the summer in
which Captain Phipps made the attempt to get to
the northward was peculiarly unfavourable.
JAMES COOK AND CHARLES CLERKE.
1776 to 1779.
The hopes of opening a navigable communica-
tion between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, by
a northerly course, were not abandoned by the
failure of Lord Mulgrave; another voyage was
ordered to be undertaken for that purpose, and
Captain JAMES COOK, who had twice circumnavi-
X 4
312
1776 to
DISCOVERIES OF
gated the globe, was appointed to command it.
On this occasion the plan of discovery which had
hitherto been followed was reversed, and instead
of attempting to pass from the Atlantic to the
Pacific, it was now intended to try it from the
latter into the former. The two ships fitted
out for this purpose were the Resolution and the
Discovery; the former of which was under the
immediate command of Captain Cook, the latter
of Captain CLERKE. It has been mentioned, that
by the Act of 18 Geo. II. a reward of £20,000 was
held out to ships belonging to any of his Majesty's
subjects which should make the passage; but it
excluded his Majesty's own ships; the reward was
moreover confined to such ships as should discover
a passage through Hudson's Bay. This Act was
therefore, on the present occasion, amended, and so
framed as to include his Majesty's ships, and to ap-
propriate the reward for the discovery of "any nor-
thern passage" for vessels by sea between the At-
lantic and Pacific Oceans; and it also awards the
sum of five thousand pounds to any ship that shall
approach to within one degree of the North Pole.
*
On the 12th July, 1776, the Resolution sailed
from Plymouth Sound, leaving instructions for the
Discovery to join her at the Cape of Good Hope;
and after various discoveries in the southern hemi-
sphere, the Pacific, and the two coasts of Asia and
* 16 Geo. III. chap. 6.
1779.
313
COOK AND CLERKE.
America, with which all Europe is well acquainted,
the two ships entered Behring's Strait on 9th
August, 1779, and anchored near a point of land
to which Captain Cook gave the name of Cape
Prince of Wales, which he afterwards ascertained
to be the western extremity of the whole con-
tinent of America. It is situated in latitude 65°
46′ N. and longitude 191° 45′ E. Some elevations
like stages, and others like huts, were seen on this
part of the coast, and they thought also that some
people were visible. From hence they stood over
to the westward and entered a bay on the east
coast of Asia, at the head of which was a village
and some people. On landing they were found to
consist of about thirty or forty men, each armed
with a spontoon, a bow and arrows, drawn up on
a rising ground. As the people of the ships drew
near, three of the natives came down to the shore,
took off their caps and made low bows. An ex-
change of presents took place; those received by
Captain Cook were two fox-skins and a couple of
seahorse-teeth; they appeared, however, to be
fearful and cautious, and preserved the attitude of
being ready to make use of their spears. They
parted with their arrows in exchange for trifling
articles, but nothing could induce them to part
with a spear or a bow. All their weapons were
made with great ingenuity, and their quivers in
particular are represented as extremely beautiful,
being made of red leather covered with neat em-
314
1776 to
DISCOVERIES OF
broidery and other ornaments. They differed in
their persons and features entirely from the natives
of north-west America, the latter being low of
stature, with round faces and high cheek-bones;
whereas the Tchutski had long visages and were
stout and well made; they had their ears bored
and some had glass beads hanging from them,
but no lip ornaments like the Americans. They
had numerous dogs, probably used to draw their
sledges, of which several appeared in one of the
huts; but Captain Cook thought that they might
also constitute a part of their food, as several were
observed lying dead which had been killed that
morning.
From this bay the ships stood over to the north-
east, and again fell in with the west coast of
America, the distance in the narrowest part being
only about fourteen leagues. Another cape was
observed to the northward of Cape Prince of
Wales, lying in latitude 67° 45′ and longitude 194°
51'; the whole coast free from snow, but apparently
destitute of wood. To this cape Captain Cook
gave the name of Point Mulgrave.
On the 17th August, in latitude 70° 41′, they
fell in with the ice, extending from E. by N. to
W. by S. and quite impenetrable, being as compact
as a wall and at least ten or twelve feet high, and
to the northward apparently much higher. The
weather clearing up, the extreme point of the
eastern land, or America, was observed to form a
1779.
315
COOK AND CLERKE.
point, which was much encumbered with ice; for
which reason it obtained the name of Icy Cape.
Its latitude was 70° 29', longitude 198° 20'.
As the ice appeared to be drifting down towards
the ships, and might probably have caught them
between it and the American shore, they stood
back to the southward into clear water, and after-
wards to the northward, finding the ice less
compact and covered with whole herds of the sea-
horse, many of which they took and found to be
good meat. The weather coming on foggy, it
was thought prudent to stand to the southward;
and on the 21st, when in latitude 69° 32′, the main
ice was observed at no great distance from them,
so that it now covered a part of the sea which but
a few days before had been clear; and it ex-
tended farther to the south than where they had
first fallen in with it. But, Captain Cook observes,
he did not suppose any part of this ice to be fixed;
on the contrary, he considered the whole as a
moveable mass.
Captain Cook stood in for the American coast,
which extended from S. W. to E., the nearest part
being four or five leagues distant. The southern
extreme he named Cape Lisburne, whose latitude
was 68° 5′, longitude 194° 42'. Finding he could
not get to the north, while near the coast, on
account of the ice, he stood out to a distance from
it. The water deepened, as he stood westward, to
twenty-eight fathoms, which was the most they
↑
316
1776 to
DISCOVERIES OF
had. On the 26th they again fell in with the
main body of the ice, appearing to be thick and
compact, and to extend from N.W. to E. by N.;
the latitude then 69° 36′, longitude 184°.
On the 27th, being close to the edge of the ice,
Captain Cook went in a boat to examine it. He
found it to consist of loose pieces, so close toge-
ther as scarcely to admit the boat between them;
it was all pure transparent ice, except the upper
surface, which was a little porous; it appeared to
be composed of frozen snow, and to have been all
formed at sea. The pieces were from forty or
fifty yards in extent to four or five, and the
larger pieces appeared to reach thirty feet or more
under the surface of the water. He considered it
improbable that so much ice could have been the
product of the preceding winter; and equally im-
probable that the little which remained of the
summer could destroy the tenth part of what then
subsisted of the mass; he thinks indeed that the
sun contributes very little to the destruction of
such immense masses that it is the wind, or
rather the waves raised by the wind, that brings
down the bulk of these huge masses, by grinding
one piece against another, and washing away
those parts that lie exposed to the surge of the
Davis was of the same opinion nearly two
hundred years before.
sea.
On the 29th the ships made the land of the
Asiatic continent, which, like the opposite coast
1
1779.
317
COOK AND CLERKE.
of America, was low land next the sea, with ele-
vated land farther back. It was destitute of
wood, and without snow. To a steep and rocky
point Captain Cook gave the name of Cape
North; its latitude 68° 56, longitude 180° 51';
no land appearing to the northward of this, it
it was concluded that the coast here began to
trend to the westward. "The season," says Cap-
tain Cook, "was now so far advanced, and the
time when the frost is expected to set in so near at
hand, that I did not think it consistent with pru-
dence, to make any further attempts to find a
passage into the Atlantic this year, in any direc-
tion, so little was the prospect of succeeding."
Accordingly, on the 30th August, he stood to the
southward, coasting the land of Asia from the
Cape Serdze Kamen of Muller, so called from a
heart-shaped rock upon it, round East Cape,
passed the mouth of the bay of St. Lawrence,
down to Tschukotskoi Noss, from thence to
Norton Sound on the American coast, and finally
to the Sandwich Islands, where this celebrated
navigator lost his life.*
Captain Clerke was now become Commanding
Officer, and Lieutenant Gore appointed Com-
mander of the Discovery. On the 15th March,
1779, they left the Sandwich Islands, and stood
to the northward, by the way of Kamtschatka, to
follow up the discovery of a passage into the
* Cook's last Voyage into the Pacific, &c. vol. ii.
318
1776 to
DISCOVERIES OF
Atlantic. On the 3d July they came in sight of
Tschukotskoi Noss, and on the 5th saw East
Cape, covered with snow, and the beach sur-
rounded with ice. On the same evening, at ten
o'clock, they saw, at the same moment, the re-
markable peaked hill, near Cape Prince of Wales,
on the coast of America, and the East Cape of
Asia, with the two connecting islands of Saint
Diomede between them. On the following day
they fell in with an extensive body of ice, from
which they seem to have anticipated an unsuc-
cessful issue of the expedition. It presented a
solid compact surface, and appeared to adhere to
the coast of America.
On the 8th July the latitude was 69° 21′, longi-
tude 192° 42′ W. They were then close to the
ice, the weather exceedingly cold, with much
snow and sleet; Fahrenheit's thermometer in the
night 28°, and at noon 30°. Having stood near
forty leagues to the westward along the edge of
the ice, without seeing any opening, or a clear sea
to the northward beyond it, Captain Clerke re-
solved to return to the southward and to pass the
time in examining the Bay of St. Lawrence, till
the season should be further advanced. They
found so much ice, however, to the southward,
and the sea now appeared so free from it to the
northward, that they immediately returned to-
wards that quarter; but on the 13th found
themselves close in with a solid field of ice, to
which no limits could be seen from the mast head;
1779.
319
COOK AND CLERKE.
the latitude then being 69° 37′, and the position
of the ships nearly in the mid channel, between
two continents; the ice extending from E. N. E.
to W.S.W. They proceeded along the edge to-
wards the coast of America, and, on the 18th,
were in latitude 70° 26′, longitude 194° 54′. The
following day they found themselves so com-
pletely embayed in the ice as to have but one
opening to the southward, through which they
directed their course. This was the farthest point
to which they proceeded, being in latitude 70° 33′,
which is five leagues short of the point to which
Captain Cook had proceeded the former year.
On the 21st they got sight of the American coast
at the distance of eight or ten leagues, and hauled
in for it; but were again stopped by the ice, and
obliged to bear away to the westward, along the
edge of it.
"Thus," observes the writer of the
voyage (Captain King), a connected, solid field
of ice rendering every effort we could make to a
nearer approach to the land fruitless, and joining,
as we judged, to it, we took a last farewell of a
north-east passage to England."
(C
After this the ships stood over to the eastward,
and on the 27th came in sight of the Asiatic con-
tinent, beyond large fields and masses of ice, in
which the Discovery had been beset and so
seriously damaged, as to require at least three
weeks repair, for which purpose it would be ne-
cessary to go into some port. As there was
thus little or no prospect of advancing to the
320
1779.
DISCOVERIES OF
northward, and both continents were obstructed
by a sea blocked up with ice, it was deemed
fruitless by both Captains, with respect to the
design of the voyage, to make any further at-
tempts toward a passage; and they determined,
therefore, to lose no more time in what Captain
Clerke concluded to be an unattainable object, but
to sail for Awatska Bay, to repair the damages.
"I will not," says Captain King, "endeavour
to conceal the joy that brightened the counte-
nance of every individual, as soon as Captain
Clerke's resolutions were made known. We were
all heartily sick of a navigation full of dan-
ger, and in which the utmost perseverance had
not been repaid with the smallest probability of
success. We therefore turned our faces toward
home, after an absence of three years, with a
delight and satisfaction, which, notwithstanding
the tedious voyage we had still to make, and the
immense distance we had to run, were as freely
entertained, and perhaps as fully enjoyed, as if
we had been already in sight of the Land's-
end."
""
RICHARD PICKERSGILL. 1776.
To give facility to the success of Captain
Cook's expedition, in the event of his reaching
* Cook's last Voyage, vol. iii.
1776.
321
RICHARD PICKERSGILL.
Baffin's Bay, Lieutenant PICKERSGILL
Was
directed to proceed to Davis's Strait in his Ma-
jesty's armed brig the Lion, for the protection of
the British whale fishers, and, that being accom-
plished, to continue up the strait into Baffin's Bay,
and explore the coasts thereof, taking care to
leave it in time to secure his return to England in
the fall of the year; with injunctions to employ
the Master, Mr. Lane, in surveying, making charts,
and taking views of the several bays, harbours, &c.
and in making such notations thereon as might be
useful to geography and navigation.* Pickersgill
was not instructed to attempt the passage; the
object of sending him into Baffin's Bay being
merely to obtain such information as might be
useful the following year to the vessel which was
intended to be sent out to look for Captain Cook,
about the time he might be expected to approach
the eastern side of America in the event of success.
The Lion left Deptford on the 25th May, 1776;
struck soundings on a bank at 320 to 330 fathoms,
on the 29th June, in latitude 57° N., longitude 24°
24′ W. which he supposed might be the remains of
Buss Island seen by one of Sir Martin Frobisher's
fleet; and, on the 7th July, saw Cape Farewell,
near which, on the following day, he was set fast
in a field of ice, "the land at the same time
forming one of the most romantic scenes that can
VOL. I.
* MS. Instructions, 14th May, 1776.
Y
322
1776.
DISCOVERIES OF ·
be described, being very high and rugged, pre-
senting to the eye mountainous rocks and spires
of almost every shape, intermixed with patches
of snow, which contrasted finely with the deep
blue of the mountains, affording the most pleasing
sensations, and at the same time exhibiting either
grandeur or horror as the sun shone forth or as it
was cloudy." Among the field-ice were several
lofty islands, on one of which was much earthy
matter many feet deep, and pieces of rock several
hundred pounds weight each, with gravelly
streams of fresh water pouring down its sides.
The whole mass was drifting to the southward.
The sea being perfectly smooth among the ice
afforded them a good opportunity of making obser-
vations for the variation and inclination of the
magnetic needle, the former of which was found
to be 41° 31′ W., and the latter 76° 30′; the lati-
tude at the same time being 60° 1' N., and longitude,
by observation of the sun and moon, 46° 36′ W.:
and from these observations and his distance from
Cape Farewell, he makes that promontory to lie in
latitude 59° 32′ N. longitude 44° 10′ West of
Greenwich.
Mr. Pickersgill, in proceeding to the northward,
appears to have kept as close to the shore as the
ice and the rocks would permit; and on the 13th
was "regaled," as he expresses himself, "with the
astonishing sight of the famous Greenland ice-
*Lieutenant Pickersgill's M.S. Journal.
1776.
323.
RICHARD PICKERSGILL.
glance; it is a prodigious high field of solid ice,
frozen across the supposed Frobisher's Strait, and
is as high as the mountains, having the most
romantic appearance that can be imagined, though
it does not shine so bright as I should have sup-
posed from the description which has been given
of it, nor could I see those amazing arches, said
to be forty feet in height, through which the
water rushes, bringing back with the ebb tide vast
quantities of ice from the inland countries with
a crashing noise resembling thunder; at the same
time it is very possible, for the nearest distance
we were from it was at least four leagues.
"'*
Still running northwards along the shore, among
rocks, islands, sand-banks and ice, the Lieutenant
anchored the Lion in a place which he called
Musquito Cove, from the swarms of this insect,
bred, as he supposes, in the pools of snow water
among the rocks. The latitude of this place was
found to be 64° 56′ 20″ N., longitude 51° 53′ 30″
W., dip of the needle 81° 22′ 30″, and variation
50° 30′ W. Here he had some communication
with the natives, who are described as well-be-
haved, diffident and honest.
On leaving this place Lieutenant Pickersgill
continued standing as close along the shore as he
could get for rocks and ice, and one day caught
thirty-six fine hollybutts, from one hundred to
* M.S. Journal.
r 2
$24
1776.
DISCOVERIES OF
:
three hundred pounds each. The sea was now
clear of ice until he came opposite to Davis's
Cape of God's Mercy, when an immense field of
ice appeared in sight, along which he continued
to sail for upwards of fifty miles. On the 3d
August, being then in latitude 65° 37′, he first be-
gan to perceive his error in the navigation of
Davis's Strait: "This day," he says, "has wafted
us faster than we have ever gone since we entered
these calm and foggy straits, for, upon an average,
we have gone no more northerly than twelve miles
a day since we have entered them. I now see the
reason of our slow progress, which has been the
keeping too near the land; therefore, as I design
to discover sea and not land, I shall direct. my way
mid-channel, as near as my poor simple judgment
will direct me, hoping for God's blessing, with my
own endeavours."* Accordingly, he made a dis-
tance of seventy-seven miles that day, and reached
the latitude of 66° 53′,—but, notwithstanding this
favourable commencement of the new plan which
he was determined to adopt, the very next day all
his resolution seems to have forsaken him, and
we find him thus expressing himself. "At twelve,
having passed a number of the highest ice-islands
I ever saw, and meeting with many more, bigger
and bigger, and every hour visibly increasing
their number, with a very heavy sea from the
southward and a hard gale, the nights growing
* M.S. Journal,
1776.
325
WALTER YOUNG.
dark very fast, and the season far spent, a num-
ber of our men sick, a putrid fever raging in the
vessel, and numbers complaining for want of
clothing and with pains in their limbs, which
seems to be in this country a general complaint,—
the vessel very wet and single-bottomed, with-
out being provided for wintering if we had been
caught with the ice; in this situation, I thought
it necessary to return, &c."* He stood on, how-
ever, as far as 68° 10', then bore up for the
southward; but, with an unaccountable per-
versity, still continued to creep along the shore,
among the rocks, and islands, and fields of ice,
and did not reach Cape Farewell till the 24th
August. On the 4th September he ran into
Porcupine harbour, on the coast of Labrador.
Here he remained till the 27th, and on the 29th
his journal breaks off thus--" Being now taken
ill, which illness continued for almost all the
passage, and as nothing material occurred during
it, I hope their Lordships will excuse the short
remainder until I give my general thoughts upon
the voyage and the hopes of a passage." It does
not appear, however, that their Lordships gave
him any further trouble on either subject, but
superseded him in the command of the Lion,
not deeming him a proper person to be sent out
on a similar voyage the following year,
* M.S. Journal.
Y 3
326
1777.
DISCOVERIES OF
WALTER YOUNG. 1777.
The Lion armed brig being again fitted out,
under her new Commander, Lieutenant WALTER
YOUNG, sailed from the Nore on the 23d March,
1777, and made Cape Farewell on the 3d June;
and for several days had stormy weather, with
much snow and hail, the ship working all the
while among fields of packed ice, till, on the 18th
May, she stood into the harbour of Lichtenfels.
On the 24th she again weighed, and made sail to
the northward, among much ice, and the weather
so bad, that on the 2d June the ship's sails, ropes
and rigging were one mass of ice. On the 5th,
the sea rose very high, and made a fair breach
over the main deck of the Lion, which froze
instantly, and the decks became covered with a
solid body of ice, and the rigging hung with
icicles: at this time the Island of Disco was in
sight. Here the ice seemed to divide into two
immense fields, leaving an open channel in the
middle, of eight or ten miles in width, down which
channel were seen floating a number of ice-islands
or bergs.
On the 28th June, in latitude 72° 42', the
Woman's Islands were in sight, and to the north-
ward, the eastern ice appeared to approach the
western, till the channel became so narrow that
Lieutenant Young thought it prudent to tack and
stand away to the southward. No soundings with
100 fathoms of line. The floating islands of ice
1777.
327
WALTER YOUNG.
were very large and numerous, and much snow
fell, with the thermometer at 30° to 32°. On the
10th it fell calm, the thermometer rose to 38° and
39°, and several fishing ships were in sight about
latitude 71° 16'. The weather was now very fine,
and the thermometer at 40° to 43°, and twenty
sail of fishing vessels plying about; but a chain
of large islands stretched across from the shore
to the western ice, not more than a quarter of a
mile asunder. The fine moderate weather, with
the thermometer frequently up to 44° and 45°,
and once to 49°, continued till the end of June,
at which time we find the Lion as far to the
southward as 63° 30′, and on the 4th July fairly
out of the strait and to the westward of Cape
Farewell, without any reason whatever being
assigned for not proceeding to the northward,
excepting the multitude of ice-islands which are
repeatedly mentioned in the remarks of each day.
Indeed the whole journal is as meagre as if it had
been the record of the most ordinary voyage.
On the 26th August he arrived at the Nore.* By
his instructions, he was directed to make the best
of his way into Baffin's Bay, and use his best en-
deavours to explore the western shores thereof, to
examine if there be any considerable rivers or
inlets affording the probability of a passage into
the Pacific, and, if so, to attempt such a passage:†
* Lieutenant Young's M.S. Journal.
† M.S. Instructions.
Y 4
328
DISCOVERIES OF WALTER YOUNG, 1777.
1
but it would appear from his journal, that no
regard whatever was paid to those instructions,
and no attempts made to push into Baffin's Bay.
+
One circumstance of this voyage is worthy to
be remarked for the contrast it affords with that of
Pickersgill; by avoiding the shoals and islands
near the western coast of Greenland, Young
reached the latitude of 72° 42′ N. so early as the
8th June; whereas Pickersgill got only to 68° 10′
so late as the 5th August.
"It was natural to hope," says Dr. Douglas,
"that something would have been done in one or
other, or in both these voyages of the Lion, that
might have opened our views with regard to the
practicability of a passage from this side of Ame-
rica. But, unfortunately, the execution did not
answer the expectations conceived. Pickersgill,
who had acquired professional experience when
acting under Captain Cook, justly merited the
censure he received, for improper behaviour when
entrusted with command in Davis's Strait; and
the talents of Young, as it afterwards appeared,
were more adapted to contribute to the glory of a
victory,* as commander of a line of battle ship,
than to add to geographical discoveries, by en-
countering mountains of ice, and exploring un-
known coasts."†
* He died in the West Indies, when Captain of the Sandwich,
bearing the flag of Sir George Rodney, in May, 1781.
+ Introduction to Cook's last Voyage, p. 40.
1786.
( 329 )
CAPTAIN (now Admiral) Lowenorn,
LIEUTE-
NANT EGEDE AND LIEUTENANT ROTHÉ.
1786 and 1787. -
The King of Denmark, at the recommendation
of Bishop Egede, (son of the missionary, Hans
Egede, who had taken him, when a child, into
Greenland,) fitted out an expedition in the year
1786, for the purpose of re-discovering the eastern
coast of Greenland, the command of which was
given to CAPTAIN LOWENORN. The Bishop was
persuaded that the long lost colony on this coast
would be found to exist, or to have existed, in
about the same parallel of latitude with the central
part of the western coast of Iceland; that the
distance between them was only about a hundred
and eighty miles; and that midway the two coasts,
or at least the summits of the mountains, are
visible at the same time; that this coast of Green-
land (which is supposed to be the part anciently
inhabited by the Danes) would be found to ex-
tend to the distance of three hundred miles to the
south-west, or south-south-west of Herjolfsnes, and
to continue in that direction as far as Cape Farewell.
These opinions, however, of the Bishop, have
since been attempted to be set aside in a treatise of
Mr. Eggers, who has endeavoured to prove that the
part of Greenland anciently discovered, and by
some supposed to be lost, is in fact the district
Sh
1
330
1786 and
DISCOVERIES OF
now called Julianshaab, which is at this moment
inhabited by the Danes; and that this part has
received the name of East Greenland, only be-
cause it happens to be situated a little to the east
of that part which is commonly called the western
coast.
The Danish government, however, was of a
different opinion. The only question with it was,
whether Frobisher had actually passed through a
strait which, crossing from the eastern to the
western coast, cut off and insulated a large portion
of Greenland; and Mr. Lowenorn, before his de-
parture, wrote a memoir to prove the fallacy of
such a supposition, which in fact had been proved
long before by the old English navigators.
Bishop Egede was of opinion that the most
favourable season for commencing this voyage
would be in the beginning of the spring, before
the masses of ice should come down from the
north and fix themselves to the coast; but Captain
Lowenorn preferred making the attempt to reach
the coast in the middle of summer, or even later,
and to depart from the west coast of Iceland for
that
purpose, as the ice would then have floated
down farther to the south and have left the east
coast of Greenland open. The ship Greo Ernst
Scheinmelmann of 246 tons burden, usually employed
on the whale fishery, was engaged by government
for this expedition. There was also attached to her
a small vessel of 60 tons, which was placed under
1787.
331
LOWENORN, EGEDE, AND ROTHE.
the command of LIEUTENANT EGEDE, the son of
the Bishop. These vessels were to pass the winter
in Iceland, in order to resume their research the
following summer, in case they should not succeed
the first year.
Mr. Lowenorn was ordered at
the same time to examine carefully the geogra-
phical situation of the Shetland Isles, and to
survey the coasts of Iceland, in order to improve
the hydrography of that island. He was also to
survey and ascertain the situation of a small
volcanic island which had appeared in the year
1783, but which, according to the reports of
several navigators, had disappeared the following
year.
The two vessels set sail from Copenhagen on
the 2d May, 1786, and arrived at Iceland on the
16th of the same month. They made some ob-
servations on the variation of the compass, which
are not much to be relied on, as, from the number
of volcanoes in almost every part of the island,
which they say contain magnetic matter, the
needle is so much affected by them as to vary
many degrees in the shortest distances. Thus
Olafsen has observed that, on the summit of
Snæfell Jokul, the compass was so disorderly that
it pointed in all directions.
Mr. Lowenorn was unable to obtain in Iceland
any correct information respecting Old Greenland;
nor could he ascertain the fact, that the coasts of
Iceland and Greenland might be seen at the same
J
$32
1786 and
DISCOVERIES OF
The same phenome-
following day, but
aurora borealis, it is
time. On the 20th June the two ships left Scol-
mensham, and on the 29th a phenomenon was
observed during the day-time which they con-
cluded to be the aurora borealis. The atmosphere
was clouded and of an extraordinary whiteness;
the sun was surrounded by a circle of faint light;
towards the N.W. the air was less cloudy; and
from the horizon streaks of light columns and
luminous points shot up resembling the aurora
borealis, darting and changing their shapes in the
same manner as this meteor.
non appeared again on the
more faintly. If it was the
probably the first time it has been observed by
daylight, and when the sun was above the horizon.
On the 30th June, they perceived the Snæfell
Jokul in the east, at the distance of about ninety
miles. At the same time they thought they per-
ceived in the western quarter some white moun-
tains covered with snow, and directed their course
towards them. On the 1st of July the atmosphere
was cloudy, and at mid-day they imagined that
they saw mountainous land; they were then
in latitude 65° 13′ 30″, and longitude 31° 16′ W.
of Paris. The fog was thick, but every now and
then it cleared away, and they fancied they saw
land; but on the air becoming quite clear they
beheld nothing but masses of ice and some float-
ing ice-bergs.
They entered a bay of ice on the 2d July; but
!
1787.
333
LOWENORN, EGEGE, AND ROTHÉ.
instead of land, they saw nothing but an immense
and impenetrable extent of ice, in which rose
enormous mountains of ice. The vapour and fog
occasioned by the great extent of ice prevented
them from seeing the coast, even if near it; but
if the land here had been mountainous, they must
have perceived its summits at a great distance
across the ice, as from time to time the fog cleared
away.
The extent of ice, which hitherto had lain in
the direction of N. E. and S.W., in this bay took a
turn to the W. and a little to the N., allowing
the ships to hold a westerly course. On the 2d
July, at mid-day, they were at least 160 miles
from Snæfell Jokul, in latitude 65° 6'—longitude
32° 3′ W. of Paris, and, according to the old charts,
they ought then to be very near Old Greenland.
In going westerly they constantly observed to-
wards the north a certain glimmering, (ice blink,)
which is an indication of an uninterrupted track of
ice, and which generally shews itself when at the
distance of ten or twelve miles, and frequently at
a much greater distance; but it is never observed
where there are only patches of floating ice. The
clouds assumed at times the appearance of land.
On the 3d July, at mid-day, when at a distance of
270 miles from Snæfell Jokul, being in latitude
65° 11', longitude 35° 8', while surrounded with
ice, they first discovered land. The variation of
the compass was here 45° 10′.
This land was
composed of very high mountains towards the
354
1786 and
DISCOVERIES OF
1
north, appearing for two days always in the same
position and of the same form; so that they were
convinced of their not being clouds. They con-
jectured this land to be at the distance of fifty
miles from them, or 290 miles nearly from Snæfell
Jokul. The ice was every where so firmly united
and of such vast extent, that they had not the
least hope of breaking through it; and even if
they could have entered it, their temerity would
probably have been repaid by their ships being
crushed in pieces between the mountains of ice.
Every moment they became more and more sur-
rounded with ice-bergs; and in this situation they
discovered an enormous log of wood, which had
been hewn square, and so large that it could not
be taken on board until it had been cut in two
with the saw. Several sea-gulls were perched
upon this log. The most remarkable circumstance
was that of its being mahogany, which is generally
too heavy to float in the water; but the wood was
so worm-eaten, even to the very heart, that Mr.
Lowenorn conjectured its specific gravity probably
might have been diminished. They saw no seals,
nor any other sea-animals, in this part of the ocean,
excepting a few gulls.
As the great mass of ice was observed to be
drifting towards the S.W., they determined not
to penetrate farther to the westward; for should
they even discover some inlet in the ice through
which they might pass, they would at most have
been able to enter some bay beyond the ice, and
1787.
335
LOWENORN, EGEDE, AND ROTHÉ.
would have been obliged to pass the winter in
Greenland, for which they were not at all pre-
pared. Besides, they hoped to find less ice
towards the north, and that they might perhaps
discover some land in the neighbourhood of the
bay of ice in which they had been on the 2d July.
On the 7th, in latitude 65° 21', longitude 30° 30′,
at 120 miles from Snæfell Jokul, they fancied
again that they saw an extended ridge of rocks,
but it proved only a chain of ice-mountains ;
at the same time, towards the west, they dis-
cerned the ice blink, nearly in the same place
where they were on the 2d July. On the 8th,
proceeding easterly, they constantly observed, in
a northerly direction, mountains of ice and the
ice-blink, and passed between some floating
islands of ice. Fearful that the masses of ice still
coming down from the northward might fill up
the whole of the sea between Greenland and
Iceland, so that it could not be navigated, they
preferred returning to Iceland, from which they
were then only about sixty miles, and to make
another attempt to discover the east coast of
Greenland when the northerly winds and the cur-
rent should have drifted the ice to the southward.
Accordingly on the 12th June they entered the
port of Dyrefjord.
All the accounts they received here confirmed
them in the opinion that there was more ice than
usual this year, and that it would not float away
336
1786 and
DISCOVERIES OF
at all that season, or at least till very late. Mr.
Lowenorn, however, resolved to set sail once
more, to be convinced of the impractibility of
penetrating through the ice. He departed on the
23d July, and on the 24th, in latitude 66° 35',
longitude 29° 10′, fell in with great masses of ice.
They persevered in coasting along these ice-bergs,
which, in latitude 65° 10', longitude 29°, appeared
to turn towards the S.W. and to form a great bay;
but that they might not be closed in by the ice,
they stood to the southward, and then returned
to latitude 65° 41', to the place nearly where they
were on the 8th. They now once more tried
to proceed westerly, but were stopped by great
masses of ice; and as for several days they saw
nothing but masses of ice on all sides, they re-
solved to return to Iceland, where they arrived, at
Havnefiord, on the 31st July. They now began
to refit the small vessel under the command of
Lieutenant Egede, which was to remain during
the winter in Iceland, in order that she might
resume the voyage of discovery in the following
spring, and Mr. Lowenorn returned to Denmark
with his ship.
Mr. Lowenorn is of opinion, that the eastern
coast of Greenland may be approached, which
however he thinks is by no means the part an-
ciently inhabited and called East Greenland, and
which has been lost for four centuries. He imagines.
that he can satisfactorily account for the vast masses
1787.
337
LOWENORN, EGEDE, AND ROTHÉ.
of ice which come down along that coast every year,
by the formation of the globe. By the motion, he
says,
of the earth round its axis from west to east,
supposing that the surface of the globe was nothing
but water, the current of the sea must constantly
be from east to west, and by reason of the centri-
fugal force, the waters must at the same time run
towards the equator; but the various groups of con-
tinents and islands have modified these motions.
The masses of ice round the north pole, and in the
sea to the north of Asia, and around Spitzbergen,
ought therefore by this rotation to take a direction
from east to west, and also towards the Equator;
and would consequently pass along the eastern
coast of Greenland. Such is Admiral Lowenorn's
theory; and such was that of Fabricius many years
before Mr. Lowenorn's voyage. Sometimes, he tells
us, these masses of ice break in the spring, on ac-
count of storms, winds, &c. and drift to the south-
ward some months earlier, leaving the northern
coast of Iceland open; but at other times the ice
does not move, but renders that coast quite inac-
cessible. In order, then, to penetrate to the eastern
coast of Greenland, a year, he thinks, ought to be
chosen when the ice floats down in the early part
of the season, intelligence of which can only be
obtained in Iceland. The navigator should ap-
proach the coast in about the 66th parallel of lati-
tude; and, by following the course of the floating
ice, proceed as far as Cape Farewell. In the
years
1751--53, an endeavour had been made with great
VOL. I.
Z
338
1786 and
DISCOVERIES OF
boats from Greenland to follow the east coast of
Statenhoek or Cape Farewell to the north; but
they had not been able to proceed farther than
sixty miles on account of various obstacles.*
No sound-
There was
Lieutenant EGEDE, with his little vessel, set sail
from the port of Havnefiord in Iceland on the 8th
of August, 1786; met for many days enormous
masses of floating ice, and discovered land on the
16th August, in latitude 65° 24′ 17″, longitude
33° 10′, at the distance of sixty or seventy miles;
and approached it within thirty miles; he observed
the current to run to the south-west.
ings were to be had at 100 fathoms.
a brightness in the horizon, occasioned no doubt
by masses of ice. The ice was of great breadth be-
tween him and the land, but he could find no open-
ing to push through it; he hove the lead in vain-no
bottom was to be found. He perceived a narrow
space of clear water lying between the ice and the
land. The land was very high, with pointed rocky
summits, apparently of greater elevation than the
mountains of Norway; and they were covered with
snow and ice; but through the telescope they
could discover pointed peaks lower down, which
were not covered with snow. On the 20th they
again discovered land, when in latitude 64° 58′ 53″,
longitude 34° 34', at the distance of about six
and thirty miles; but all the coast was beset with
ice, which it was impossible to penetrate. They
* Abstracted from Admiral Lowenorn's MS. Journal.
1787. LOWENORN, EGEDE, and rothé.
AND
339
could perceive a large bay or river which opened
out to the northward, and ran in that direction
into the country. They approached the land
within ten miles. The bay, which might be four
or five miles in breadth, was full of ice-islands.
The land was very high, with pointed rocks
covered with snow and ice. Through the tele-
scope they perceived clefts in the rocks, and they
thought they could see moss growing in some
places. The coast trended in the direction of
N.N.E. and S.S. W.; but Egede conjectures that
at fifteen or sixteen miles more to the southward
they might have seen Herjolfsnes, the bay belong-
ing to which runs down as far as Statenhoek.
There were numbers of seals on the ice-islands,
gulls, and various species of sea-birds. Egede
coasted on along the land towards the south, and
though the air was very clear, they could perceive
neither men, houses, nor animals, though they were
sufficiently near the land to see them had there
been any. On the 21st he still continued to see
land; but the ice drove him from it, and in order
that he might not be closed in, he thought it pru-
dent to stand out into the open sea. The follow-
ing day they had a terrible storm, by which the
vessel was much damaged, and on the 22d Sep-
tember they regained the port of Havnefiord in
Iceland, after being tossed about in all directions
for some weeks.
Here Lieutenant Egede resolved to pass the
Z 2
340
1786 and
DISCOVERIES OF
winter, in order to resume the object of the expe-
dition in the following spring. Accordingly on
the 6th of March, 1787, he again set sail, but fell
in with nothing but immense masses of ice, float-
ing about in all directions; and, the ship having
sprung a leak, he was obliged to seek a port of
Iceland, where he arrived on the 23d of April.
Here he gained some intelligence concerning the
ice, being informed that the quantity during
the last two years had been greater than usual.
He again set sail on the 8th of May with two
small vessels, one of which was under the com-
mand of LIEUTENANT ROTHE. On the 17th May
they came in sight of the land on the eastern
coast of Greenland, being then in latitude 65° 15′
58″, longitude 34° 47′. At the same time they
were surrounded by ice-islands, and it was re-
marked that, on that and on the following day,
the current ran from south northerly, which was
the more extraordinary as it had been considered
to run invariably in the contrary direction. But
they were then in a large bay formed by the ice,
which extended to the distance of thirty miles or
more from the shore, without the smallest open-
ing. In short, Egede observes that he had never
before met with so much ice. He entered this
bay of ice, which was at least forty miles in
depth. On the 18th he approached the ice as
close as was possible in order to get a near view of
the coast. He was then about thirty miles from
1787.
341
LOWENORN, EGEDE, AND ROTHÉ.
the nearest land, and forty miles from the most
northern part of it, the latitude being 65° 54′ 18″,
longitude 36° 51'. The coast extended from
N.N.E. to S.S.W. They saw nothing but rocks,
very high, pointed, and in most parts covered with
ice and snow, presenting a most dreary and
miserable spectacle; and he observes, that if this
part of the coast be inhabited, the people must
acquire their means of sustenance in the interior
of the country, by hunting and by fishing in the
rivers, for he thinks they could not live on the sea-
coast on account of the mountains of ice which
surround it by land and by sea.
On the change of the current the ice began to
come down afresh from the north, which forced
them to leave the bay; a task they accomplished
not without difficulty, and made sail for Iceland,
where they arrived on the 28th May.
On the 8th June Lieutenant Egede set sail a
second time; but meeting with nothing but
mountains of ice, which it was impossible to pass,
or to find any opening to admit the vessel towards
the land beyond the ice, he put back into Iceland,
after an unsuccessful attempt of three weeks.
On the 14th July and 25th August he again made
endeavours to pass through the ice, and to push on
towards the coast of Greenland; but meeting
continually with impenetrable ice, which prevented
him even from seeing the land, he was at last
forced to abandon the undertaking altogether, and
z 3
342
1789.
DISCOVERIES OF
}
to return to Denmark. The two little vessels
were so much damaged by the ice and the storms
they met with, that they were every moment in
danger of sinking.*
ALEXANDER MACKENZIE. 1789.
1
With the view of reaching the shores of the
hyperborean sea, Mr. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE,
accompanied by a party of Canadians and some
Indians, one of which had been with Hearne, set
out from Fort Chepewyan, on the south side of
the Lake of the Hills, on the 3d June, 1789.
On reaching the Slave Lake they found much ice,
but were able to proceed, partly by land and
partly by crossing the bays of the lake; they then
descended the Mackenzie, River, passed several
tribes of Indians, and arrived finally at that which
is called Deguthee Dinees or the Quarrellers,
being the last inhabitants of Indians to the north-
ward, and immediately bordering on the Esqui-
maux. From these Indians he learned that the
distance over land, on the east side, to the sea, was
not long, and to the westward still shorter; the
intermediate land through which the river flowed
projecting to a point into the sea. The banks of
the river were now low, and displayed, on the 10th
July, a face of solid ice, intermixed with veins of
black earth; yet trees of spruce were growing
* From Admiral Lowenorn's MS. Journal.
1789.
343
ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
of a large size. The latitude of the Quarrellers is
about 67° 45'. On the 10th they passed three
encampments of the Esquimaux. The river now
began to widen fast, and to flow in a number of
narrow meandering channels among low islands,
on which were only observed a few dwarf willows.
On the 12th July they entered a lake, in latitude
69° 1′, open to the westward, in which, out of the
channel of the river, there was not more than
four feet water, and in some places the depth did
not exceed one foot. They arrived at an island,
the deepest water in the passage to it for fifteen
miles not exceeding five feet. From a high part
of this island they could see the solid ice extend-
ing from the south-west by compass to the east-
ward. In the south-west they could dimly per-
ceive a chain of mountains, at the distance of
more than twenty leagues, stretching farther to
the north than the edge of the ice. To the east-
ward were observed many islands. Mr. Mackenzie
says, "My people could not at this time refrain
from expressions of real concern that they were
obliged to return, without reaching the sea.
we are told that the people were obliged to re-
move the baggage on account of the rising of the
water; that this rising they concluded to be the
tide; and that it appeared to rise sixteen or
eighteen inches: there were besides a great num-
ber of whales in the water, which, the guide
informed them, were the same kind of fish which
Yet
z 4
344
1789.
DISCOVERIES OF
ر
constituted the principal food of the Esquimaux.
On the island where they encamped, and which
he called Whale Island, several red foxes were
seen, one of which was killed. The latitude of
Whale Island was 69° 14' N. No natives appeared
either on the shore of the continent or on the
islands; but in various places were seen the
remains of their habitations, their domestic
utensils, frames of sledges and of canoes made of
whalebone, which left no doubt on Mr. Mac-
kenzie's mind that they were the deserted abodes
of the Esquimaux.
If Hearne's account of his visits to the mouth
of the Copper Mine River was unsatisfactory,
that of Mackenzie to the mouth of that river
which bears his name is still more so; for we are
completely left in the dark, and almost without the
smallest guide to form an opinion, whether the ex-
tensive but shallow water, in which Whale Island is
situated, be the sea or a lake. He evidently
means to impress the reader with an idea of its
being the sea, but forbears even the mention of
the word; yet the title of his book* implies, and
on his chart it is asserted, that he had reached the
"frozen ocean." It is observed by a writer in a
popular critical journal, † that the simple,
easy, and obvious test of dipping his finger in the
""
* Voyage from Montreal through the continent of North
America to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans.
+ The Quarterly Review, No. XXXI. p. 167.
1791.
345
CHARLES DUNCAN.
water to taste if it was salt, seems not to have
occurred" to the traveller; that "if he did so, he
is uncandid in not mentioning the result:" and the
conclusion drawn by the same, writer, from all the
circumstances mentioned by Hearne and Mac-
kenzie, is, that both were certainly near the sea-
shore, though neither of them actually reached it.
CHARLES DUNCAN. 1790, 1791.
The inland journey of Mr. Hearne had drawn
the attention of Mr. Dalrymple to the considera-
tion of the imperfect geography of the northern
regions of America, and the lands around the
north pole. In the course of his inquiries he
was furnished with some charts made by the
Indians, and other documents, from the Hudson's
Bay Company, which led him to conclude that,
notwithstanding the numerous failures in the
search after a northern passage from the Atlantic
to the Pacific, such a passage would ultimately
be discovered round the north-eastern extremity
of America, and that the surest way to it was up
the Welcome. But as the naval administration
of that day entertained less sanguine views on the
subject, and as Mr. Dalrymple had experienced
the truth of Dr. Douglas's observation, that "the
Governor and Committee of the Hudson's Bay
Company had made amends for the narrow preju-
1
346
1790,
DISCOVERIES OF
dices of their predecessors, and that no further
obstruction would be thrown in the way of those
who might be sent on discovery," he addressed
himself to the Governor of that Company, and
prevailed on him to employ MR. CHARLES DUN-
CAN, a Master in the navy, (now Master-attendant
of His Majesty's dock-yard at Chatham,) who had
shewn considerable talent on a voyage to Nootka
Sound.
Mr. Duncan was no less sanguine of success
than Mr. Dalrymple. In 1790 he left England in
one of the Company's ships called the Sea-horse,
to take the command of a sloop named the
Churchill, then in Hudson's Bay, and destined
for the discovery. He found, on his arrival, a
crew who affected to be terrified at the idea of
proceeding to the northward on discovery. The
Company's servants endeavoured to persuade him
that the vessel was totally unfit for such a purpose,
and told him, that there were no means in that
country to make her sea-worthy-though Mr.
Duncan has since learned that this same vessel
was constantly employed for twenty years after-
wards. Finding that every impediment was
thrown in his way, and nothing likely to be done
that season, he returned to England, resolving
to have nothing further to do with the servants of
the Hudson's Bay Company. However, on his
arrival in England the Governors expressed so
much regret and disappointment, and Mr. Dal-
1791.
347
CHARLES DUNCAN.
rymple was so urgent for following up the dis-
covery, that he was prevailed on to take the com-
mand of a strong well-built ship of eighty-four
tons, called the Beaver, fitted to his mind, and
stored with eighteen months' provisions. He left
the Thames on the 2d May, 1791, met with much
ice on entering Hudson's Strait, and was SO
hampered with it among the straits and islands,
that he did not reach the height of Charles's
Island, which is only in latitude 63°, till the
2d August; and on the 5th September entered
Churchill River, when all hope of being able to
accomplish any thing for that year was at an end.
It has been observed, as something very remark-
able, "that our early adventurers, at a time when the
art of navigation was in its infancy, the science
but little understood, the instruments few and
imperfect, in barks of twenty-five or thirty tons
burden, ill-constructed, ill-found, and apparently
ill-suited to brave the mountains of ice between
which they had to force their way, and the dark
and dismal storms which beset them--that these
men should have succeeded in running through the
straits to high latitudes, and home again, in less
time than Mr. Duncan required to reach one of
the Hudson's Bay Company's establishments, the
route to which was then as well known as that to
the Shetland Islands."* Mr. Duncan's delay was
* Quarterly Review, No. XXXI, p. 166. .
348
DISCOVERIES OF CHARLES DUNCAN. 1791.
evidently occasioned by his great predilection for
keeping near the land.
Mr. Duncan remained the winter in Churchill
River, which he did not leave till the 15th July
following; he then entered Chesterfield Inlet, and
returned to Churchill about the end of August;
his crew, as he states in his journal, having
mutinied, who were encouraged by his first officer,
a servant of the Hudson's Bay Company. The
mortification he suffered at the failure, and the
grief and vexation occasioned by his turbulent
crew, had such an effect on his mind, that a violent
fever was the consequence; and the voyage proved
completely abortive. Thus terminated the last,
and, it may also be said, the least efficient of all the
expeditions (that of Gibbons perhaps excepted)
for the discovery of the north-west passage.*
* MS. Journal of Mr. Duncan.
}
1728.
(349)
DISCOVERIES MADE BY THE RUSSIANS ON THE
NORTHERN COAST OF SIBERIA DURING THE
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
THE Various voyages and partial discoveries of
the Russians, along the shores of that widely ex-
tended empire, would scarcely admit of being
brought separately into the chronological arrange-
ment; but they have been collected and arranged
with precision and ability by Mr. Coxe, in his in-
teresting "Account of Russian Discoveries." The
only part of them, which is here intended to be
noticed, is that which relates to their several at-
tempts to open a navigation between the White Sea
and the Pacific, through the Northern or Tartarian
Sea. The discovery and possession of Kamtschatka
made such a communication the more desirable,
and induced the Emperor Peter the Great to form
a plan of discovery, the chief object of which
was to ascertain "the separation, contiguity, or
connection of Asia and America."
For this pur-
pose, he drew up with his own hand a minute of
instructions, which, after his death, were immedi-
ately carried into execution by the Empress Ca-
therine, who dispatched BEHRING, in 1728, from
350
1734.
DISCOVERIES OF
Kamtschatka, in a vessel called the Fortune, manned
with a crew of forty men and two lieutenants on
this servicc. On the 10th August he fell in with the
Island of St. Laurence, and continuing his course
northerly till the 15th of the same month, found
himself in latitude 67° 18'; and seeing no land
either to the northward or the eastward, and the
Asiatic continent trending to the westward, he
conceived that he had fully established the fact of
the separation of Asia and America, and had con-
sequently executed his instructions; he thought
it therefore prudent, at this advanced season of the
year, to return to Kamtschatka.
The next point was to establish the fact, whe-
ther a practicable navigation existed between the
White Sea and the sea of Kamtschatka. For this
purpose various expeditions were undertaken, but
none of them succeeded in performing the whole
voyage, either at once or in successive trials; nor
indeed is it quite clear that the whole navigation
has ever been accomplished by different persons
at different times, though the whole has unques-
tionably been done, with the exception of one
"sacred promontory," between Yenisei and the
Lena, called Cape Severo Vostochnoi or North-East
Cape.
The first attempt from Archangel was in 1734,
when Lieutenant MOROVIOF set sail for the
Obe, but he reached no farther that year than the
mouth of the Petchora. The following summer
1735.
351
THE RUSSIAN NAVIGATORS.
he passed through the strait of Waigatz into the
sea of Kara, along the western coast of which he
navigated as high as latitude 72° 30′, but did not
succeed in doubling the Cape Olenei, which
separates Kara from these a of Obe. But in 1738
Lieutenants MALGYN and SKURAKOF doubled
that promontory, though not without great diffi-
culty, and entered the bay of Obe. In the same
year, two vessels under the Lieutenants OFFZIN
and KOSKELEF passed round Cape Matzol, from
the Bay of Obe to the mouth of the Yenisei,
which had been frequently attempted without
success; and in that year also the pilot, FEODOR
MENIN, sailed from the mouth of the Yenisei
towards the Lena, but being stopped by the ice
at the mouth of the Piasida or Piacini, through
which he was unable to find a passage, he returned
to the Yenisei.
Lieutenant PRONTSHISTSHEF had attempted, in
the year 1735, to proceed the contrary way from
the Lena to the Yenisei. He found great diffi-
culty in passing through the archipelago of islands
lying at the mouth of the Lena, on account of the
ice. Proceeding to the north-west, he observed
many ice-islands, from twenty-four to sixty feet
in height. He passed through narrow channels
between fields of ice, and damaged his vessel so
much, that on the 2d September he was compelled
to seek shelter in the mouth of the Olenek or
Olensk, where he passed the winter.
He again
352
1735.
DISCOVERIES OF
set sail, on the 1st August, and in three days
reached the mouth of the Anabara, in latitude
75°, proceeded on his voyage on the 10th, passed
through much ice, and was obliged to take shelter
at the mouth of the Katanga, in latitude 75°
nearly. Continuing along the shore to the north-
ward, he reached Taimura on the 18th: a chain
of islands stretching to the northward prevented
his further progress, and with much difficulty
he returned to the Olenek, which he reached on
the 29th August. If this account given by
Gmelin were correct, the promontory between the
Katanga and the Taimura would have been
doubled, and the difficulty surmounted. Muller,
according to Coxe, says, that Prontshistshef did
not quite reach the mouth of the Taimura;
and that he was stopped by a chain of islands
stretching from the continent far to the north-
ward, the channels between which were choked
with ice; and that, having worked among them
as high as latitude 77° 25', and seeing no prospect
of forcing a passage, he returned to the Olenek.
The Russians, from Archangel and other ports,
make annual voyages to the western coast of
Nova Zembla for the purpose of catching seals,
bears and sea-horses, but it does not appear that
any vessel, excepting that of William Barentz, the
Dutchman, ever passed the northern extremity to
the eastern coast.
From the Lena eastward to the Kovyma, the
.1648.
353
THE RUSSIAN NAVIGATORS.
passage is less difficult, and has frequently been
performed; but it is not pretended that the voyage
from the Kovyma round Tschuktskoi Noss has
been accomplished more than once, and that was
by a Cossack of the name of DESHNEFF, as far
back as the year 1648. The account of this
curious voyage was discovered in the records of
Yakutsk, in 1736, and, together with that of
some other navigations in the frozen ocean, pub-
lished by Muller. Its authenticity appears to
have been established by Behring and Cook, who
found the description of the north-eastern coast of
Asia, the opposite islands, and the people, to ac-
cord exactly with that which is given in Deshneff's
narrative. It is however a remarkable circumstance,
that none of the various attempts to pass Shelatskoi
Noss, the point which forms the north-eastern ex-
tremity of Asia, have succeeded since the time of
Deshneff. The most persevering were those made
by SHALAUROF, a merchant of Yakutsk, who, hav-
ing built a ship at his own expense, descended the
Lena in 1761, but found so much ice in the month
of July that he was obliged to take refuge in
the Yana, where he was detained by the ice till
the 29th August. From hence he coasted to the
eastward, doubled Swaitoi Noss, or the "sacred
promontory," on the 6th September, and dis-
covered land to the northward in the frozen ocean,
which was afterwards visited by some Russian
officers, and found to be five uninhabited islands,
VOL. I.
A A
354
1762.
DISCOVERIES OF
to which they gave the name of Bear Islands.
Having passed between those islands and the
main, and the season being far advanced, Shalau-
rof ran his vessel into one of the mouths of the
Kovyma, where he wintered, and procured great
plenty of wild rein-deer, salmon and trout.
The mouth of the Kovyma was not free from
ice before the 21st July, 1762, when Shalaurof
again put to sea, and stood to the eastward. He
soon found that he had not only much ice to
contend with, but also a current setting to the
westward. On the 19th August the ship was
near the shore, surrounded and hemmed in by
islands of ice. He endeavoured for several days
to regain the open sea, which was observed to be
much less clogged with ice, but was forced down
towards the coast by large floating masses setting
in that direction. He succeeded, however, in get-
ting clear of it, and again stood to the N. E. in
order to double Shelatskoi Noss, the latitude of
which is about 71°, but contrary winds and the
lateness of the season obliged him to search for
some place to pass the winter in. He accordingly
stood to the southward into a deep bay on the
western side of Shelatskoi Noss, near the island
of Sabedei, where he observed some huts of the
Tschutski, but the inhabitants fled on his ap-
proach.
Finding no place here proper for his purpose, he
again stood out to sea on the 8th September; and,
1764. THE RUSSIAN NAVIGATORS.
-355
[
having fastened his vessel to a large mass of ice,
was drifted along with it to the W.S.W. at the
rate of five versts an hour; on the 12th he came
to his former wintering place in the Kovyma, in-
tending to make another attempt the following
year to double Shelatskoi Noss; but want of pro-
visions and the mutiny of the crew forced him to
return to the Lena.
The difficulties he had met with did not however
intimidate Shalaurof from making another attempt
to double Shelatskoi Noss, which he by no means
considered as impracticable; and for this purpose
he left the Lena, in the same vessel, in the year
1764, but neither he nor any of his crew ever
returned. They are supposed to have been put to
death by the Tschutski, near the Anadyr, the
third year after their departure from the Lena;
but whether he had succeeded in doubling
the north-east promontory and passed through
Behring's Strait to the Anadyr, or crossed the
narrow neck of land which separates the Anadyr
from the Kovyma, has not been ascertained; all
that is known being the certainty of their having
perished in that neighbourhood. Mr. Sauer
learned from Dauerkin, the Tschutski interpreter,
that Shalaurof's vessel had been found drifting
near the mouth of the Kovyma, and himself and
his crew frozen to death in a tent; but he doubted
the truth of the story.
In all the Russian attempts to pass from Arch-
A A S
356
1764.
DISCOVERIES OF THE RUSSIANS.
}
angel, and the more eastern ports, into the Pacific,
it cannot fail to strike the reader that every where
along this low coast and shallow sea the vessels
had to struggle continually with ice, and that in
their endeavours to double the projecting points
of land, they constantly kept close to the shore,
instead of standing out into deep water, where,
in all probability, they would have met with less
ice.*
* Coxe's Account of the Russian Discoveries.
1
( 357 )
CHAPTER V.
VOYAGES OF NORTHERN DISCOVERY UNDERTAKEN
IN THE EARLY PART OF THE NINETEENTH
CENTURY.
Lieutenant Kotzebue-John Ross, David Buchan, Wil-
liam Edward Parry, and John Franklin.
LIEUTENANT KOTZEBUE. 1815 to 1818.
THE long protracted war, in which all the nations,
of Europe were at different times involved, sus-
pended all attempts at northern discovery; but no
sooner did the European world begin to feel the
blessings of peace, than the spirit of discovery
revived. Expeditions were sent forth to every
quarter of the globe; and, to the honour of an
individual it ought to be mentioned that, at his
own cost, a ship was fitted out for the purpose of
ascertaining whether the sea, on the northern coast
of America, afforded a navigable passage between
the Pacific and Atlantic oceans: that individual
is the Russian Count Romanzoff. The vessel
A A 3
358
1815 to
DISCOVERIES OF
prepared for this undertaking was called the
Rurick, and LIEUTENANT KOTZEBUE, son of the
celebrated writer of that name, was appointed to
command her. She was of small tonnage, not
exceeding one hundred, and manned with twenty-
two men, officers included,
a surgeon and
botanist. His instructions were to proceed round
Cape Horn, and make the best of his way to
the north-west coast of America, pass Behring's
Strait, and endeavour to find some bay or inlet on
the American side to lay up his vessel in safety,
while, with a certain number of his crew, he
should penetrate the American continent by land,
first to the northward, to ascertain if Icy Cape be
an island, as is supposed, and then to the eastward,
keeping the hyperborean sea on their left, and
carrying with them light skin boats or baidars to
enable them to pass such lakes or rivers as might
intervene.
At one of the Aleutian Islands he observed a
vast quantity of drift-wood thrown upon the
shore, and, among other species of wood, picked
up a log of the camphor tree. In the midst of
Behring's Strait, between East Cape and Cape
Prince of Wales, he found the current setting
strongly to the north-east, at the rate, as he
thought, of two miles and a half an hour, which
is at least twice the velocity observed by Cook.
In this particular place also the depth of the water
was considerably more than the soundings men-
tioned in Cook's voyage.
1
1818.
359
LIEUTENANT KOTZEBUE.
1
Having passed the Cape Prince of Wales early
in August, without any obstruction from ice, and
as it would appear without seeing any, an opening
was observed in the line of the American coast, in
latitude about 671° to 68°. Into this inlet the
Rurick entered. Across the mouth was a small
island, the shores of which were covered with drift-
wood; and among it were observed trees of an
enormous size. The tide regularly ebbed and
flowed through the passages on each side of the
island. Within the entrance, the great bay or inlet
spread out to the north and south, and had several
coves or sounds on each shore. Its extent to the
eastward was not determined, but the Rurick pro-
ceeded as far in that direction as the meridian of
160°, which corresponds with that of the bottom of
Norton Sound.
The shores of this great inlet, and more particu-
larly the northern one, were well peopled with
Indians of a large size; the men were well armed
with bows, arrows, and spears. They wore skin
clothing, and leather boots, neatly made and orna-
mented; their huts were comfortable and sunk
deep into the earth; their furniture and imple-
ments neatly made; they had sledges drawn
apparently by dogs, though the skulls and skins of
rein-deer indicated the presence of that animal in
the country. The description given by Lieutenant
Kotzebue of these people corresponds almost ex-
actly with that of the Tschutski by Cook on the
A A 4
360
1815 to
DISCOVERIES OF
opposite continent, with whom they sometimes
trade and are sometimes at war. They are the
same race of people as those on the continent of
America lower down and about the Russian settle-
ment of Kodiack, as appeared from a native of
that place being able to understand their language.
From these Indians Lieutenant Kotzebue learned,
that, at the bottom of the inlet was a strait through
which there was a passage into the great sea, and
that it required nine days rowing with one of their
boats to reach this sea. This, Kotzebue thinks,
must be the Great Northern Ocean, and that the
whole of the land to the northward of the inlet must
either be an island or an archipelago of islands.
At the bottom of a cove on the northern shore
of the inlet was an extensive perpendicular cliff,
apparently of chalk, of the height of six or seven
hundred feet, the summit of which was entirely
covered with vegetation; between the foot of this
cliff and the shore was a slip of land, in width
about five or six hundred yards, covered also with
plants, which were afterwards found to be of the
same kind as those on the summit. But the asto-
nishment of the travellers may readily be conceived,
when they discovered, on their approach to this
extensive cliff, that it was actually a mountain
of solid ice, down the sides of which the water was
trickling by the heat of the sun. At the foot of
the cliff several elephants' teeth were picked up,
similar to those which have been found in such
immense quantities in Siberia and the islands of
1818.
361
LIEUTENANT KOTZEBUE.
the Tartarian Sea;* these teeth they concluded
to have fallen out of the mass of ice as its surface
melted, though no other part of the animal was dis-
covered by them. There was, however, a most
oppressive and offensive smell of animal matter,
not unlike that of burnt bones, so that it was
almost impossible to remain near those parts of
the face of the mountain where the water was
trickling down. By the gradual slope of the side
of this enormous ice-berg which faced the interior
they were able to ascend to its summit, and to make
a collection of the plants that were growing upon
it. The stratum of soil which covered it was not
deep, and the Lieutenant describes it as being of a
calcareous nature. The slip of land at the foot of
the mountain was probably formed of the soil and
plants which had fallen down from the summit as
the ice melted, and which, in fact, while there,
they had the opportunity of observing to fall.
Besides this mountain of ice, there was no ap-
pearance of ice or snow on the land or the water
in this part of America, and the weather was
exceedingly clear and mild, and even warm; but
on the opposite coast of Asia the weather at the
same time was cold, and the atmosphere almost
constantly loaded with fogs. There was in fact
* Lieutenant Kotzebue called them mammoths' teeth (mas-
todontes); but from a drawing made by the naturalist they were.
evidently the teeth of elephants: which is the more extraordinary,
as being the first remains of this quadruped found in the New world.
362
1815 to
DISCOVERIES OF
such a great difference between the temperature of
the two continents, on the two sides of the strait,
that, in standing across, it was like passing instan-
taneously from summer to winter, and the contrary.
This happened about the end of August, at which
time a fair and open passage appeared to lie on the
American side, as far to the northward as the
eye could reach; whereas on the Asiatic side the
ice seemed to be fixed to the shore, and its outer
edge to extend in the direction of north-east, which
was precisely that of the current.
The season being too far advanced either to at-
tempt to carry the Rurick round Icy Cape, which,
however, Lieutenant Kotzebue thinks he could
have done without any obstruction, or to prosecute
the land journey to the eastward; and fearing if he
remained longer in the great inlet the entrance.
might be closed up with ice, he thought the most-
prudent step he could take would be that of
pro-
ceeding to winter and refit in California, and early
in the following spring to renew the attempt to
penetrate into the interior of America. He ac-
cordingly set out again early in March, called at
the Sandwich Islands, and reached the Aleutian
Islands in June, where the Rurick suffered much
from a violent gale of wind, in which Lieutenant
Kotzebue unfortunately had his breast bone bro-
ken; this accident threw him into such a state
of ill health, that after persevering till they reached
Eivoogiena or Clerke's Island, at the mouth of
1818.
363
LIEUTENANT KOTZEBUE.
Behring's Strait, the surgeon declared that nothing
but a warmer climate would save his life. The
ice had but just left the southern shores of this
island and was gradually moving to the northward,
which it appears is its usual course every year,
but is hastened or delayed in its progress more or
less according to the prevailing winds and the
strength with which they blow. Being thus
nearly a month too soon to afford any prospect of
immediate access to the inlet on the northern side
of Cape Prince of Wales, and his health daily
getting worse, he was reluctantly compelled to
return with his little bark, and to make the best
of his way home round the Cape of Good Hope.
In the course of his circumnavigation, Lieu-
tenant Kotzebue has made several interesting
discoveries of new groups of islands in the
Pacific; and he has done that which for the first
time has been effected, namely, taking the tempe-
rature of the sea at the surface and at a certain
depth at a particular hour every day, both on the
outward and homeward voyage.
It is greatly to the credit of Lieutenant Kot-
zebue that, after a voyage of three years, in
in every
variety of climate, he has brought back again
every man of his little crew, with the exception of
one who embarked in a sickly state.*
* From personal conversation with Lieutenant Kotzebue.
364
1818.
DISCOVERIES OF ROSS,
1
í
JOHN ROSS, DAVID BUCHAN, WILLIAM EDWARD
PARRY AND JOHN FRANKLIN. 1818.
In the whole series of expeditions for the dis-
covery of a northern communication between the
Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, none have been fitted
out on so extensive a scale, or so completely
equipped in every respect, as the two which left
England this present year. From the numerous
attempts that have been made from the earliest
periods of British navigation to the end of the
eighteenth century, it is sufficiently evident that
the discovery of a north-west passage to India and
China has always been considered as an object
peculiarly British. It engaged the attention and
procured the encouragement of the first literary
characters of the age, and the most respectable of
the mercantile class. It has received the patro-
nage of sovereigns, and the promise of rewards
from different parliaments. It never failed to
excite a most lively interest among all conditions
of men.
The principal maritime nations of Eu-
rope have at different times been engaged in the
same enterprize; and even Russia, as we have
seen, nay, a private individual of Russia, has
recently fitted out a ship at his own cost, for the
discovery of a communication between the two
oceans by a passage round North America.
It would therefore have been something worse
1818. BUCHAN, PARRY, AND FRANKLIN
365*
than indifference, if, in a reign which stands
proudly pre-eminent for the spirit in which
voyages of discovery have been conducted, Eng-
land had quietly looked on, and suffered another
nation to accomplish almost the only interesting
discovery that remains to be made in geography,
and one to which her old navigators were the first
to open the way.
A circumstance occurred which encouraged the
fitting out an expedition of discovery at this par-
ticular time. For the last three years, very unusual
quantities of the polar ice had been observed to
float down into the Atlantic; and in the year 1817
the eastern coast of Greenland, which is supposed
to have been shut up with ice for four centuries,
was found to be accessible from the 70th to the
80th degree of latitude, and the intermediate sea
between it and Spitzbergen entirely open in the
latter parallel.* This disappearance of the arctic
ice from a very considerable extent of the Green-
land seas was deemed to be favourable for making
a new experiment, and to hold out the hope of a
successful issue; particularly in the attempt to
approach the north pole, which, notwithstanding
the failure of the late Lord Mulgrave, is considered
by many as being by no means a hopeless enter-
prize. The opinion of the learned, and the ex-
perience of the whale-fishers, have long been in
favour of an open polar sea, and of the practicabi-
* A Hamburgh ship actually sailed along this track.
366
1818.
DISCOVERIES OF ROSS,
lity of reaching this northern extremity of the earth's
axis: it was resolved, therefore, to fit out two distinct
expeditions; the one to proceed up the middle
of Davis's Strait to a high northern latitude
and then to stretch across to the westward, in the
hope of being able to pass the northern extremity
of America, and reach Behring's Strait by that
route; the other to proceed directly north, between
Greenland and Spitzbergen, and in the event of
meeting with an open polar sea, free from land,
in which case it was hoped it would also be free
from ice, to proceed direct for Behring's Strait, by
which route the distance would be shorter than
the other by nearly one-third.
The ships fitted out for exploring the north-west
passage were the Isabella, of 382 tons, commanded
by Captain JOHN Ross, and the Alexander, of
252 tons, under the orders of Lieutenant WIL-
LIAM EDWARD PARRY. Those destined for the
polar passage were the Dorothea, of 370 tons,
commanded by Captain DAVID BUCHAN, and the
Trent, of 250 tons, under the command of Lieute-
nanț JOHN FRANKLIN; to each ship there was also
appointed an additional Lieutenant and two master's
mates or midshipmen. Two of these Lieutenants
are the sons of two eminent artists, one of the
late Mr. Hoppner and the other of Sir William
Beechey, and both of them excellent draughtsmen.
The four ships were all fitted out as strong as
wood and iron could make them, and every regard
paid in the internal arrangement to the comfort
1818.
367
BUCHAN, PARRY, AND FRANKLIN.
and accommodation of the officers and crews.
They were stored with provisions and fuel for two
years; supplied with additional quantities of fresh
preserved meats, tea, sugar, sago, and other arti-
cles of a similar kind. Each of the larger ships
had a surgeon and a surgeon's assistant, and the
two smaller vessels an assistant surgeon each. A
master and a mate accustomed to the Greenland
fishery were engaged for each ship, to act as pilots
when they should meet with ice. The whole
complement of men, including officers, seamen,
and marines in each of the larger ships was fifty-
six, and in the smaller forty. Captain Sabine, of
the Royal Artillery, an officer well versed in ma-
thematics and astronomy and in the practical use
of instruments, was recommended by the President
and Council of the Royal Society, and in conse-
quence thereof engaged, to proceed with the north-
west expedition; and Mr. Fisher, of the Uni-
versity of Cambridge, a gentleman well versed in
mathematics and various branches of natural know-
ledge, to accompany the polar one. A number of
new and valuable instruments were prepared for
making observations in all the departments of
science, and for conducting philosophical experi-
ments and investigations; in order that, in the
event of the main object of the voyage being
defeated either through accident or from utter
impracticability, every possible attention might be
paid to the advancement of science, and correct
368
1818.
DISCOVERIES OF ROSS,
information obtained on every interesting subject
in high northern latitudes which are rarely visited
by scientific men.
Among other important objects, which the occa-
sion will present, is that of determining the length
of the pendulum vibrating seconds in a high de-
gree of latitude. For this purpose each expedition
is supplied with a clock having a pendulum cast in
one solid mass, vibrating on a blunt knife-edge
resting in longitudinal sections of hollow cylinders
of agate; and to each clock is added a transit in-
strument. Each ship is also supplied with the
following instruments-a dipping needle on a new
construction which, at the same time, is calculated
to measure the magnetic force-an azimuth com-
pass improved by Captain Katera repeating
circle for taking terrestrial angles-an instrument
for ascertaining the altitude of celestial bodies
when the horizon is obscured by fogs, which is
almost always the case in high latitudes-a dip-
micrometer and dip-sector, invented by Doctor
Wollaston, to correct the variation of the real dip
from that given in the tables, arising principally
from the difference between the temperature of the
sea and the atmosphere-a macrometer, also in-
vented by Doctor Wollaston, for measuring di-
rectly the distance of inaccessible objects, by
means of two reflectors, mounted as in a common
sextant, but at a greater distance from each other
-three chronometers to each ship-a hydrometer,
1818.
369
BUCHAN, PARRY, AND FRANKLIN.
intended to determine the specific gravity of sea-
water in different latitudes-thermometers of va-
rious kinds-a barometer of Sir Henry Engle-
field's construction for ascertaining the height of
objects. Besides these, each expedition is fur-
nished with an apparatus for trying the state of
atmospherical electricity, and determining whether
there be any thing peculiar in the electricity of
the atmosphere in the polar regions; and whether
there be any analogy between the aurora borealis
and the electrical light—an apparatus for taking
up sea-water from given depths; and an apparatus
for the analysis of air, which is the more desirable
from there being little or no change from vege-
table or animal life or decomposition in the polar
atmosphere; and consequently a different propor-
tion of oxygen, azote or carbonic acid, may be ex-
pected from that which prevails under ordinary
circumstances.
Each expedition is besides provided with a com-
plete apparatus for collecting, in the sea and on
the land, the various objects of natural history
which may occur, and for preserving them in a
proper state; and of such as cannot be preserved,
accurate drawings will be made by Lieutenants
Hoppner and Beechy. On the whole, neither care
nor expense appears to have been spared in sending
out the two expeditions as complete and as well
equipped as possible, and nothing that the com-
manders of them deemed to be useful was refused.
B B
VOL. I.
$70
1818.
DISCOVERIES OF ROSS,
Every suggestion that appeared to merit considera-
tion was attended to, both in the equipment of the
ships and in the instructions to the officers, every
one of whom, from the highest to the lowest, left
this country in perfect satisfaction, and in full con-
fidence of attaining the great object of the expe-
ditions or at least with the determination of esta-
blishing the fact of its utter impracticability.
The failure of so many expeditions, of which
an abstract has been given in the preceding pages,
is certainly rather of a discouraging nature; and
after so many unsuccessful trials for the discovery
of a passage between the Atlantic and the Pacific
oceans by the north-east, the north, and the north-
west, it would not seem unreasonable to infer that
no such passage exists, and that therefore the two
last expeditions might have been spared-but the
same inference might with equal fairness have been
drawn after the first three or four attempts. The
progressive geography of the northern regions
was very slow; but it has been progressive: yet
much within the limits of practical navigation still
remains unexplored.
Of the three directions in which a passage has
been sought for, from the Atlantic to the Pacific,
that by the north-east holds out the least encou-
raging hope; indeed the various unsuccessful
1818. BUCHAN, PARRY, AND FRANKLIN,
371
attempts by the English and the Dutch on the one
side, and by the Russians on the other, go far to
prove the utter impracticability of a navigable
passage round the northern extremity of Asia;
though the whole of this coast, with the exception,
perhaps, of a single point, has been navigated in
several detached parts and at different times.
But the question of a north-west passage, which
would be much shorter, and of a polar one, which
would be the shortest of all, rests on very dif-
ferent grounds. That the north pole may be
approached by sea, has been an opinion enter-
tained both by experienced navigators and by
men eminent for their learning and science; that
several ships have at different times been carried
three or four degrees beyond Spitzbergen and the
usual limits of the whale fishery, is not merely
a matter of opinion; and if the polar sea be
navigable to the height of 84°, there seems to be
no other physical obstruction, than the interven-
tion of land, to the practical navigation of that
sea to the north pole itself; as there is no reason to
suppose that the temperature of that point is lower
in the winter, while it is probably much higher in
the summer, than on the parallel of 80°; as it is
well known that the latitude of 80° is generally
not colder on the same meridian, and in many
places much less severe, than that of 70° is in
others. The Russians pass the winter very well on.
Spitzbergen, but they have not ventured to winter
BBQ
372
1818.
DISCOVERIES OF ROSS,
1
on Nova Zembla many degrees to the southward of
it. Deer live and thrive in 80° latitude on Spitz-
bergen, but cannot live in 75° on Nova Zembla.
Neither does the quantity of ice, whether formed
on the surface of the main ocean, or floated
out of the bays and rivers and from the coasts,
depend on the degree of latitude where it is
found. Ships, for instance, navigate freely every
year round the North Cape in the parallel of 72°
or 73°, and proceed along the coast of Spitzbergen
without impediment from ice as high up as 80°,
while on the opposite coast of America the sea is
not navigable at all for a great part of the
year from
45° upwards; and the parallel of 66° forms at pre-
sent the utmost limits of northern navigation on
that coast.
It is a well established fact that the cold is
much more intense on the eastern than on the
western coasts of continents and islands. Iceland
furnishes a curious instance of this fact; the
whole eastern coast being a series of mountains
covered with ice and snow, and immense glaciers,
moving downwards to the very sea; while the
mountains and the fiords or firths on the west-
ern side are generally, if not always, free from
ice; but what is still more extraordinary, the op-
posite coast of Greenland in the same parallel of
latitude and four degrees to the southward of it,
and at the short distance of one hundred and fifty
miles, is guarded from all approach by a perpetual
and interminable barrier of ice.
1818.
373
BUCHAN, PARRY, AND FRANKLIN.
In fact the ice-bergs and those vast fields of ice
which float about on the sea, and are wafted down
by currents into the Atlantic, are chiefly formed
on coasts and in bays, in narrow straits and at the
mouths of great rivers. The whole coast of Sibe-
ria is a fertile source of this supply. The multi-.
tude of large rivers which fall into the polar sea,
by carrying down alluvial earth, have formed
numerous expansive and shallow bays of fresh
water, which, in the course of the winter, become
so many solid masses of ice. As the sources of
these rivers and a great part of their course are in
more southern latitudes, where they never freeze,
the water they supply is, in the winter, dammed up
near the mouth, and ice-bergs are formed, which,
when broken loose, are drifted out to sea. In the
same manner the field ice is formed in the straits
and bays and on shallow coasts, which, when set
afloat in the spring, is carried out into the sea; in
this situation it is drifted about till heaped piece on
piece, and driven about, it again fixes itself among
archipelagos of islands, on shallow coasts, and in
straits, bays and inlets, where each field becomes
a nucleus for an increased accumulation—as in the
straits of Bellisle and Behring, for instance, and in
every part of Hudson's Bay, down to the latitude of
50°. One vast chain of field ice is usually found
wedged in between the eastern coast of Green-
land and Spitzbergen, in the direction of north-
east and south-west, which, as the summer ad-
374
1818.
DISCOVERIES OF ROSS,
vances, and particularly when the wind blows
from the northward, opens in various places;
and when ships have passed through these open-
ings to the northward they have generally found
the sea clear of ice.
If therefore the great polar basin should be
free of land, the probability is, that it will also be
free of ice. It was the opinion of Frobisher,
Davis, and most of the old and experienced navi-
gators, that the deep blue sea does not freeze.
This would be to assume too much, as its surface
has frequently been observed to freeze when not
agitated by the wind; but it may be doubted
whether a deep and extensive sea can be perma-
nently shut up with ice. The almost perpetual
agitation of the surface, and the increased tem-
perature of the water at great depths, and conse-
quently its diminished specific gravity, which
will cause it to ascend, will probably prevent
those immense fields and masses of ice from form-
ing, which are met with near the land even in
very low latitudes. It was, at any rate, desirable
to ascertain how the fact stood in this respect,
and whether it was practicable to reach the north
pole, in which case, there was no reason to doubt
that it would also be practicable to proceed by
that nearest route to Behring's Strait. The only
expedition which had hitherto been sent out for
the express purpose of advancing towards the
north pole, was that under the command of Cap-
1818.
375
BUCHAN, PARRY, AND FRANKLIN.
tain Phipps; but the two vessels employed on this
service having unfortunately got hampered and
entangled in the shallow sea and among the islands
on the northern and north-eastern side of Spitz-
bergen, at an advanced period of the season, it
returned without making any discovery.
The case is different with regard to the north-
west passage. From the very frequent attempts
which have been made for its discovery, it is now
known pretty nearly whereabouts such a passage,
if it exists at all, must be looked for. It has, for
instance, been ascertained, that there is no passage
on the coast of America below the arctic circle ;
but beyond this it has not been ascertained whe-
ther this coast rounds off to the eastward in a
continuous line into Old Greenland, forming what
is named Baffin's Bay on the charts, or whether it
does not turn in a contrary direction to the west-
ward, and fall in with the general trending of the
northern coast of America; which, from three
nearly equidistant points, seen by Cook, Mackenzie
and Hearne, may be considered to run within a
degree either way of the 70th parallel of lati-
tude.
Many reasons have been assigned for the latter
supposition. The constant current that descends
down the Welcome on the one side, and towards
the coast of Greenland on the other; the logs of
mahogany and the remains of the North Ame-
rican ox brought from the north-west by that
376
1818.
DISCOVERIES OF ROSS,
current; the ice-bergs that come floating down
from the northward; and the whale struck in the
sea of Spitzbergen and taken the same year in
Davis's Strait;* these and the rude charts painted
on skins by the Indians, which, though without
scale or compass, mark the inlets from Hudson's
Bay with tolerable accuracy, and carry the coast
without interruption to the Coppermine River,†
are strong arguments in favour of a north-western
communication between the Atlantic and the
Pacific.
Indeed the best geographers are now of opinion
that Greenland is either an island or an archi-
pelago of islands; and this is no new idea. Among
the Burleigh Papers, in the British Museum, is
one on the subject of a north-west passage to
Cathaia in his lordship's own hand-writing, which
begins thus:" Considering Groynelande is well
known to be an islande, and that it is not con-
joyned to America in any part; that there is no
cause of doubte but that upon the north of Bacca-
laos the seas are open," &c.
This supposed insularity of Greenland will most
probably be determined by one or other of the ex-
peditions. If in the affirmative, the next question
* Quarterly Review, No. XXXVI. Art. VIII.
+ One of these charts is in the Hudson's Bay House.
In the Lansdowne Collection, vol. c Paper No. 4, en-
dorsed Mr. Greynfeld's Voiadge, &c.
1818. BUCHAN, PARRY, AND FRANKLIN,
377
that presents itself is, whether an uninterrupted
communication exists between the Pacific and the
Atlantic. The simple fact of a perpetual current
setting from the Pacific into Behring's Strait, and
a perpetual current down the coasts of Greenland
and Labrador into the Atlantic, renders such a
communication extremely probable; and it becomes
almost certain, when we find the productions
of the shores of the Pacific carried to the north-
ward by the first current, and brought down into
the Atlantic by the second. The journals of
Cook, Clerke, Glottof, and Kotzebue establish
this fact. And as we know, from the Russian,
the English and the Dutch navigators, that a
westerly current sets along the coast of Siberia
and Europe, from the Kovyma to the White Sea,
it is probable that the water, in passing through
Behring's Strait into the Polar Sea, diverges
on each side, and that the other part of it, follow-
ing the trending of the American coast, gives rise
to the current down the Welcome, as observed by
Button, Fox, Middleton and others.
It must be admitted, at the same time, that
although a communication may, and in all proba-
bility does, exist between the two oceans, it by
no means follows that there must also be found a
navigable passage for large vessels; though it is not
unfair to infer that, where large mountains of ice
can float and find their way, a ship may do the
CC
378
1818.
DISCOVERIES OF ROSS,
same. This, however, is the point to be ascer-
tained by the expedition under Captain Ross.
While this officer, with two vessels under his
orders, is employed in examining the unexplored
part of the east coast of America, to the north-
ward of the arctic circle, and in endeavouring to
pass along the northern shore of that continent to
Behring's Strait, to Captain Buchan is assigned
the task of inquiring into the state of the Polar
Sea to the northward of Spitzbergen. Should
both fail of success in the main objects of the cx-
pedition, from both may at least be confidently
expected much valuable information, and im-
provement in the hydrography and the geography
of the arctic regions; as well as many important
and interesting observations on the atmospherical,
magnetical, and electrical phenomena, which can-
not fail to advance the science of meteorology;
and lastly, many valuable collections of objects in
natural history, which inhabit a part of the globe
where few researches have yet been made in this
branch of science. In short, from the zeal and
abilities of the persons employed in the arduous
enterprize, every thing may be expected to be
done within the scope of possibility. Of the
enterprize itself it may be truly characterized as
one of the most liberal and disinterested that
was ever undertaken, and every way worthy of a
great, a prosperous and an enlightened nation;
1818.
379
BUCHAN, PARRY, AND FRANKLIN.
1
having for its primary object that of the advance-
ment of science, for its own sake, without any
selfish or interested views. On this account it has
justly excited the attention, and called forth the
approbation, of maritime Europe; for it is well
known that whatever new discoveries may be
made, will be for the general benefit of mankind;
and that if a practicable passage should be found
to exist from the Northern Atlantic into the
Northern Pacific, the maritime nations of Europe
will equally partake of the advantages, without
having incurred either the expense or the risk of
exploring it.
APPENDIX.
No. I.
Mr. Buchan's Expedition into the Interior of
Newfoundland.
SINCE the first establishment of the fishery on the banks of
Newfoundland, very little communication has at any time
been had with the natives of this large island, and for more
than half a century past none at all; indeed, it was considered
by many as doubtful whether there were on the island any
permanent inhabitants, or whether the Indians, sometimes
seen on the western coast, did not come in their canoes
across the Strait of Bellisle merely for the purpose of fish-
ing and killing deer. A settler, however, reported that, in
the autumn of 1810, he had discovered a storehouse on the
banks of the River of Exploits. Upon this report, Sir
John Duckworth sent Lieutenant (now Captain) BUCHAN,
commander of the schooner Adonis, to the Bay of Ex-
ploits for the purpose of undertaking an expedition into
the interior, with a view of opening a communication with
the native Indians, if any such were to be found. His
vessel was soon frozen up in the bay; and on the 12th
January, 1811, Mr. Buchan began his march into the in-
terior, along the banks of the river, accompanied by twenty-
four of his crew and three guides; and, having penetrated
about one hundred and thirty miles, discovered some
wigwams of the natives. He surprised them; and their
inhabitants, in number about seventy-five persons, became
a
•
APPENDIX, NO. I.
in his power. He succeeded in overcoming their extreme
terror, and soon established a good understanding with
them. Four of the men, among whom was the chief,
accepted his invitation to accompany them back to the
place where, as he explained to them by signs, he had left
some presents which he designed for them.
The confidence by this time existing was mutual, and so
great, that two of Mr. Buchan's people requested to remain
with the Indians till his return with the presents. They were
permitted to do so; and Mr. Buchan set out on his return
to his depôt, with the remainder of the party and the four
Indians. They continued together for about six miles, (to
the resting place of the night before,) when the chief declined
going any farther, and with one of his men took leave,
directing the other two to go on with Mr. Buchan. They
did so till they came near the place to which they were to
be conducted, when one of them became panic-struck, and
fled. But the tempers of the two men were different. The
latter remained unshaken in his determination, and with
a cheerful countenance and an air of perfect confidence
in the good faith of his new allies, motioned to them
with his hand to proceed; disregarding his companion, and
seeming to treat with scorn Mr. Buchan's invitation, to
depart freely if he chose to do so. Soon afterwards the
party reached their rendezvous; slept there one night;
loaded themselves with the presents, and returned again
to the wigwams. The behaviour of the Indian remained
always the same.
He continued to shew a generous con-
fidence, and the whole tenor of his conduct was such as
Mr. Buchan could not witness without a feeling of esteem.
for him. On arriving at the wigwams they were found de-
serted, and the Indian became exceedingly alarmed. Many
circumstances determined Mr. Buchan to let him be at
perfect liberty; and this treatment revived his spirits. The
party spent the night at the wigwams, and continued their
route in the morning. They had proceeded about a mile,
APPENDIX, No. f.
ૐ
when, being a little in advance before the rest of the party,
the Indian was seen to start suddenly backward. He
screamed loudly, and fled with a swiftness that rendered
pursuit in vain. The cause of his flight was understood
when Mr. Buchan, the next moment, beheld upon the ice,
headless and pierced by the arrows of the natives, the
naked bodies of his two marines who had been left with
the Indians. An alarm had, it is evident, been given by
the savage to the party at the rendezvous; and it is
supposed that, to justify his conduct in so deserting, he
had abused his countrymen with a tale, which excited them
to what perhaps they considered a just retaliation.
The following is an abstract of Mr. Buchan's journal :-
JOURNAL.
Saturday, 12th January, 1811: River of Exploits.—
On the eve of this day my arrangements were closed, and
every necessary preparation for the purpose of endeavouring
to accomplish the object of procuring an interview with
the native Indians of this island. For this service I em-
ployed William Cull and Matthew Hughster as guides,
attended by twenty-three men and a boy of the crew of
His Majesty's schooner, and Thomas Taylor, a man in
Mr. Miller's employ, and well acquainted with this part of
the country.
The provisions, arms, and other requisite articles, to-
gether with presents for the Indians, were packed on twelve
sledges, and consisted of the following: viz. bread, eight
hundred and fifty pounds; sugar, one hundred pounds; co-
coa, thirty-four pounds; pork, six hundred and sixty pounds;
salt beef, thirty pounds; spirits, sixty gallons, equal to four
hundred and eighty pounds; rice, thirty pounds; tea, six
pounds; tare of casks and packages, five hundred pounds;
ships' muskets, seven; fowling-pieces, three; pistols, six;
cutlasses, six; with cartouch boxes and ammunition equal to
two hundred and seventy pounds; ten axes, and culinary
utensils presents for the Indians-blankets, thirty; wool-
a 2
4
APPENDIX, NO. I.
:
len wrappers, nine; flannel shirts, eighteen; hatchets,
twenty-six; tin pots, ten; with beads, thread, knives,
needles, and other trifles, equal to one hundred and eighty
pounds the sledges with their lashings and drag-ropes are
estimated at two hundred and forty pounds; one lower
studding sail and painted canvass covers for the sledges, one
hundred and twenty pounds; spare snow shoes, buskins,
vamps, cuffs, and twenty-eight knapsacks, eighty pounds :
making, independent of a small quantity of baggage allowed
to each person, three thousand six hundred and twenty
pounds in wieght.
13th. Wind N.W. blowing strong. At 7 A. M. com-
menced our march in crossing the arm from the schooner
to Little Peter's Point, which is two miles; we found it ex-
tremely cold, with the snow drifting, and sledges heavy from
the sloppiness of the ice; but having rounded the point, we
became sheltered from the wind until reaching Wigwam
Point, which is two miles farther up on the north side;
here the river turns to the northward; a mile farther
up is
Mr. Miller's upper Salmon station; the winter crew have
their house on the south shore. 3 P. M. having reached
the remains of a house occupied by William Cull last winter,
we put up for the night, our distance made good being but
eight miles in as many hours travelling. The night proved
so intensely cold, with light snow at times, that none of our
party could refresh themselves with sleep.
14th. Wind N.W. with sharp piercing cold. Renewed
our journey with the dawn, not sorry to leave a place in
which we had passed so intolerable a night. Having pro-
cceded two miles, we came to the Nutt Islands, four in
number, situated in the middle of the river; a mile above
these, occurs the first rattle or small waterfall; as far as the
eye could discern up the river, nothing appeared but ice, in
rugged ridges, threatening to preclude the possibility of
drawing the sledges along; but determined to surmount all
practicable difficulties, I proceeded on with the guides to
APPENDIX, NO. 1.
5
select among the hollows those which seemed to be the
most favourable. At 3 P.M. we put up on the north side,
and fenced round the fire-place by way of shelter. This
day's laborious journey I compute to be seven miles; the
crew, from excessive fatigue, and a somewhat milder night
than the last, enjoyed some sleep:-Left a cask with bread,
pork, cocoa and sugar, for two days, to be used on our re-
turn.
15th. Blowing fresh from W. N.W. to N. N.W. with
snow at times; the river winding from west to north-west.
At 3 P.M. stopped on the north bank for the night, one
mile above a rattling brook, which empties itself into the
great river.
On the south side we discovered a canoe,
which I observed to be one belonging to the Canadian who
had resided at Wigwam Point. This day's journey exhibited
the same difficulties as yesterday, having frequently to ad-
vance a party to cut and level, in some degree, the ridges
of ice, to admit the sledges to pass from one gulph to ano-
ther, and to fill up the hollows, to prevent them froin being
precipitated so violently as to be dashed to pieces,-but
notwithstanding the utmost care, the lashings, from the
constant friction, frequently gave way; and in the evening,
most of the sledges had to undergo some repair and fresh
packing. Fenced the fire-place in; at supper the people ap-
peared in good spirits, the weather being milder; and
fatigue produced a tolerable night's rest. This day's dis-
tance may be estimated at seven miles.
16th. Strong breezes from the N.W. with sharp frost.
Began our journey with the day; several of the sledges
gave way, which delayed us a considerable time. At 11
A.M. discovered two old wigwams on the north bank of the
river; although they did not appear to have been lately in-
habited, yet there were some indications of the natives having
been here this fall. 2h. 30′ P.M. having reached the lower
extremity of the great waterfall, we put up on the north
side. While the party were preparing a fire and fence, I
a 3
6
APPENDIX, NO. 1,
{
i
proceeded on, with Cull and Taylor, in search of an Indian
path, through which they convey their canoes into the river
above the overfall. Taylor, not having been here for many
years, had lost all recollection where to find it; however, after
a tedious search we fell in with it, and perceived evident
signs of their having recently passed this way, but not ap¬
parently in any great number. The evening advancing, we
retraced our steps, and reached our fire-place with the
close of the day. The night proved more mild than any
hitherto, and our rest proportionably better. Here I left
bread, pork, cocoa and sugar, for two days, and four gal-
lons of ruin.
17th. South-westerly winds, with sleet and cold wea-
ther. Began this day's route by conducting the sledges in
a winding direction amongst some high rocks, which forms
the lower part of the waterfall; we had not proceeded
more than half a mile, before it was found necessary to un-
load and parbuckle the casks over a perpendicular neck of
land, which, projecting into the rapid, prevented the ice
attaching itself to its verge; having reloaded on the oppo-
site side, and turned the Margin of Coves for the third of
a mile, we arrived at the foot of a steep bank where com-
menced the Indian path; here it was also necessary to
unload, Leaving the party to convey the things up the
bank, I went on with Cull and Taylor, to discover the farther
end of the path; having come to a marsh, it was with
difficulty we again traced it; at length we reached the
river above the overfall, its whole extent being one mile and
a quarter, having gone on two miles beyond this, we re-
turned. At noon, the wind having veered to the south-east,
it came on to rain heavily, sent a division on to the farther
end of the path to prepare a fire, &c. At 3 P.M. all the
light baggage and arms being conveyed to the fire-place,
the sledges were left for the night half-way in the path, so
that after eight hours' fatigue, we had got little better than
a mile and a half. It continued to rain hard until 9 P.M.
APPENDIX, NO. I.
when the wind having shifted round to the westward, the
weather cleared up; and the crew, having dried their
clothes, retired to rest.
18th.
Wind W.N.W. and cold weather. Leaving the
party to bring on the sledges to the Indian dock, and to
repack them, I and the guides having advanced a mile, it
was found requisite to cut a path of a hundred yards to pass
over the point which the sledges could not round for want
of sufficient ice being attached to it. 10 h. 30′ we now
rounded a bay, leaving several islands on our left, the tra
velling pretty good, except in some places where the ice
was very narrow, and the water oozing over its surface: most
of us got wet feet. 2h. 30' P.M. put up in a cove on the
north shore, as we should have been unable to have reached
before dark another place where good fire-wood was to be
found; here the river forms a bay on either side, leaving
between them a space of nearly one mile and a half, in
which were several islands.
Having given directions for the fire-place to be fenced
in, and the sledges requiring to be repaired, Cull and my-
self went on two miles to Rushy Pond Marsh, where he
had been last winter, and found that the two wigwams were
removed which he then saw here. The trees leading from
the river to the marsh were marked, and in some places a
fence-work thrown up; the bushes in a particular line of
direction, through a long extent of marsh, had wisps of
birch bark suspended to them by salmon twine, so placed
as to direct the deer down to the river; we killed two par-
tridges, and retired to the party by an inland route: we
reckon the distance from the Indian dock to this resting-place
to be six miles.
19th. Westerly wind and moderate, but very cold. Most
of this day's travelling over smooth snow, the sledges con-
sequently hauled heavy; having winded for two miles amongst
rough ice to gain a green wood on the south shore, that on
the north being entirely burnt down, we put up at 4 P.M.
24
APPENDIX, NO. I.
a little way in on the bank of a brook, where we deposited
a cask with bread, pork, cocoa and sugar for two days' con-
sumption. In all this day's route the river was entirely
frozen over: we passed several islands; saw a fox and killed
a partridge; estimated distance ten miles; rested tolerably
during the night.
20th. Wind W.N.W. and cold. Renewed our journey
with the first appearance of day; broke two of the sledges
by passing over a mile of sharp ice. At noon the sun
shone forth; the weather warm, and a fine clear sky.
4 P.M. halted on an island situate two miles above Badger
Bay Brook, which falls into the Exploits, on the north side,
and saw the remains of a wigwam; from this brook up-
wards, as also on the opposite side of the river, are fences
for several miles, and one likewise extended, in a westerly
direction, through the island on which we halted, and is
calculated to be twelve miles from the last sleeping place,
and twenty-seven miles from the Indian dock. Hodge's
Hills bearing from this E.S.E.
21st. Wind westerly, with bleak weather. At dawn
proceeded on; at noon several difficulties presented them-
selves in crossing a tract of shelvy ice, intersected with deep
wide rents, occasioned by a waterfall; the sledges were
however got over them, as also some steeps on the north
bank. Having ascended the waterfall, found the river open,
and faced with ice sufficient on the edge of its banks to
admit the sledges. At 3 h. 30' put up for the night, and
fenced in the fire-place; this day's distance is estimated at
eleven miles, allowing seven from the island on which we
slept to the overfall, and from thence four more to this.
From the waterfall upwards, on either side of the river
where the natural bank would have been inefficient, fences
were thrown up, to prevent the deer from landing, after
taking to the water by gaps left open for the purpose..
Repacked the sledges, two of them being unfit to go on
APPENDIX, NO. I.
9
further, deposited a cask with bread, pork, cocoa and sugar
for two days' consumption. The party slept well.
22d. Wind S.W. with mild hazy weather. Having ad-
vanced two miles, on the south side stood a storehouse;
William Cull stated that no such building was there last
year; it appeared newly erected, and its form circular, and
covered round with some deer skins, and some carcasses left
a little way from it; two poles were stuck in the ice close
to the water, as if canoes had lately been there. Four
miles from this passed an island and rounded a bay, two
miles beyond its western extremity,-on a projecting rock
were placed several stag's horns: William Cull now in-
formed me it was at this place he had examined the store-
houses mentioned in his narrative, but now no vestige of
them appeared; there was, however, ample room cleared of
wood for such a building as is described to have stood, and
a few hundred yards off was the frame of a wigwam still
standing; close to this was a deer-skin hanging to a tree,
and farther on a trope with the name of "Rousell." On
the south bank, a little lower down, also stood the remains.
of a wigwam, close to which Cull pointed out the other
storehouse to have been; a quarter of a mile below, on the
same side, a river, considerable in appearance, emptied
itself into this; directly against its entrance stands an
island, well wooded: we continued on four miles, and then
the party stopped for the night; Cull accompanied me two
miles farther, and returned at sun set. During this day's
journey, at intervals, we could discern a track which bore
the appearance of a man's foot going upwards. One of the
sledges fell into the water, but it fortunately happening to
be a shoal part nothing was lost. Our distance made good
to-day we allow to be twelve miles, and the river open from
the last overfall with scarcely enough ice attached to the
bank to admit the sledges to pass on, and there are banks
and fences in such places as the natives find it necessary to
obstruct the landing of the deer, some of these extending
10
APPENDIX, NO. I.
two or three miles, others striking inland. Divided the
party into three watches, those on guard under arms during
the night.
23d. Wind westerly, wild cold weather. At day-light
renewed our journey: the river now shoaled and ran ra-
pidly; I wished to have forded it, conceiving that the In-
dians inhabited the other side, but found it impracticable.
At 10 A.M. having advanced six miles, and seeing the im-
possibility of proceeding farther with the sledges, I divided
the party, leaving one-half to take care of the stores, whilst
the other accompanied me; and taking with us four days' pro-
visions, we renewed our route; the river now winded more
northerly. Having proceeded on about four miles, we ob-
served on the south side a path in the snow, where a canoe
had evidently been hauled across to get above a rattle, this
being the only sure indication we had discovered of their
having passed upwards from the store on the south side.-
The river narrowed, ran irregularly, and diminished in depth
very considerably. Having passed several small rivers on
this side, we came abreast of an island, opposite to which,
on the south side, there was a path in the snow from the
water, ascending a bank where the trees were very recently
cut, clearly evincing the residence of the natives to be at no
great distance; but it being impossible to ford the river at this
place, we continued on, but had not gone more than a mile,
when, on turning a point, an expansive view opened out, and
we saw before us an immense lake extending in a N.E. and
S.W. direction, its surface a smooth sheet of ice. We per-
ceived tracks, but could not be certain whether of deer or
men. On approaching the lake or pond, we discovered on
its north-west side two objects in motion, but were uncer-
tain whether they were men or quadrupeds. I drew the
party suddenly into the wood to prevent discovery, and di-
recting them to prepare a place for the night, I went on
with Cull to reconnoitre. Having skirted along the woods for
pearly two miles, we posted ourselves in a position to ob-
APPENDIX, NO. 1.
11
serve the motions of the two objects, and could perceive
that one gained ground considerably on the other; we con-
tinued to doubt as to their being men until just before losing
sight of them in the twilight we could discern that the one
behind dragged a sledge. Nothing more could be done.
until the morning, as it would have been impossible to have
found their track in the dark; observing, on our return, a
shovel in a bank of snow, we suspected that venison had
been dug out, and in searching about found a fine heart and
liver, which afforded a good supper for the party, whom we
did not rejoin until dark; one-third of the men were in suc-
cession under arms, during the night, which proved cold and
restless to all.
24th. Wind N.E. and intensely cold. Having refreshed
ourselves with breakfast and a dram to each, at 4 A. M.
commenced our march along the east shore of the lake with
the utmost silence: beyond the point from whence I had the
last view of the two natives, we fell in with a quantity of
venison in carcasses and quarters, close to which was a path
into the wood. Conjecturing that the habitations of the
Indians were not far off, we advanced in and found the re-
mains of one; the party complained much of the cold, and
occasionally sheltered themselves under the lee of projecting
points. It now became necessary to cross the pond in
order to gain the track of the sledge we had seen; this ex-
posed us entirely to the bitterness of the morning, and all
complained of excessive cold. With the first glimpse of morn
we reached the wished-for track, which led us along the
western shore to the north east, up to a point, on which
stood an old wigwam; from thence it struck across for the
shore we had left. As the day opened it was requisite to
push forward with celerity to prevent being seen and to sur-
prise the natives, if possible, while asleep. Canoes were soon
descried, and shortly after wigwams, two close to each other,
and a third about a hundred yards from the former. Having
examined the arms, and charged my men to be prompt in
12
APPENDIX, NO. I.
executing such orders as might be given, at the same time I
strictly ordered them to avoid every impropriety, and to be
especially guarded in their behaviour towards the women.
The bank was now ascended with great alacrity and silence;
the party being formed into three divisions, the three wig-
wams were at once secured; we called to the people within,
but received no answer; the skins which covered the entrance
were then removed, and we beheld groups of men, women,
and children lying in the utmost consternation; they remained
absolutely for some minutes without motion or utterance.
My first object was now to remove their fears and inspire
confidence in us, which was soon accomplished by our
shaking hands and shewing every friendly disposition. The
women very soon began to embrace me for my attention to
their children; from the utmost state of alarm they soon
became curious, and examined our dress with great attention
and surprise. They kindled a fire and presented us with
venison steaks, and fat run into a solid cake, which they
used with lean meat. Every thing promised the utmost
cordiality; knives, handkerchiefs, and other little articles
were presented to them, and in return they offered us skins.
I had to regret our utter ignorance of their language, and
that the presents were at the distance of at least twelve
miles. The want of these occasioned me much embarrass-
ment; I used every endeavour to make them understand my
great desire that some of them should accompany us to the
place where our baggage was, and assist in bringing up such
things as we wore; which at last they seemed perfectly to
comprehend. We had spent three hours and a half in con-
ciliatory endeavours, and every appearance of the greatest
amity subsisted between us; and considering a longer delay
useless, without possessing the means of convincing them
further of our friendship, we indicated our intention of
setting out and speedily returning, on which four of them
signified that they would accompany us. James Butler,
Corporal, and Thomas Bouthland, private of marines, re-
APPENDIX, NO. 1,
13.
quested to be left behind in order to repair their snow shoes;
and such was the confidence placed by my people in the
natives that most of the party wished to be the individuals
to remain among them. I was induced to comply with the
first request from a motive of shewing the natives a mutual
confidence, and cautioning them to observe the utmost
regularity.
Having myself again shaken hands with all the natives, and
expressed, in the best way I could, my intention to be with
them the following morning, we set out; and they expressed
their satisfaction by signs on seeing that two of us were going
to remain with them. On reaching the river head, two of
the Indians struck off into our last night's resting-place ; one
of them I considered to be their chief; finding nothing here
he directed two of the four to continue on with us; they pro-
ceeded with cheerfulness, though at times they seemed to
mistrust us. The banks of the river being narrow and
winding occasioned, at times, a considerable distance be-
tween me and the Indians, and one of them, having loitered
behind, took the opportunity on our doubling a point to run
off with great speed, calling out to his comrade to follow.
This incident I considered to be unfortunate, as we were now
nearly in sight of our party with the baggage. I thought it
not improbable but that he might have seen the smoke and
taken the alarm. Certainly no one act of any of my people
could have given rise to any such conduct; he had, however,
evidently some suspicions, as he had frequently come up,
looked steadily in my face as if to read my intentions. I
had been most scrupulous in avoiding every action and
gesture that might cause the least distrust. In order to try
the disposition of the remaining Indian he was made to un-
derstand that he was at liberty to go if he chose, but he
shewed not the least wish of this kind.
At 3 P. M. we joined the rest of our party, when the
Indian seemed to be startled on seeing so many more men;
but this was but of momentary duration, for he soon be-
14-
APPENDIX, No. 1.
came pleased with all he saw; I made him a few presents,
and shewed him the articles which were to be taken up
for
his countrymen, consisting of blankets, woollen wrappers,
and shirts, beads, hatchets, knives, and tin-pots, thread,
and fish-hooks, with which he appeared much satisfied, and
regaled himself with tea and broiled venison, for we brought
down two haunches with us in the evening. A pair of
trowsers and vamps being made out of a blanket, and a
flannel shirt being presented to him, he put them on with
sensible pleasure, carefully avoiding any indecency; being
under no restraint, he occasionally went out, and he ex-
pressed a strong desire for canvass, pointing to a studding
sail which covered us in on one side; and he lay down by
me during the night. Still my mind was somewhat dis-
turbed lest the native Indians, on the return of their com-
rade that had deserted us, might be induced, from his mis-
representation and from fear, to have quitted their wigwams
to observe our motions; but I was willing to suppress my
alarm for the safety of our men left with them, judging that
they would not be inclined to commit any violence, particu-
larly until they should see whether we returned and brought
back their companion; I was moreover satisfied that the
conduct of my men would not give occasion for animosity.
•
25th. Wind N.N.E. and boisterous, with sleet; set out,
leaving only eight of the party behind. On coming up to
the river-head, we observed the tracks of three men crossing
the frozen lake in a direction for the other side of the river;
the violence of the wind with the sleet and drift snow ren-
dered it laborious to get on, and the air was so thick at times
that the party could frequently not discern each other, al-
though at no great distance. When we had reached within
half-a-mile of the wigwams, the Indian, who walked some-
times on before and at other times by my side, pointed out
an arrow sticking in the ice; we also perceived the recent
track of a sledge. At 2 P. M. we arrived at the wigwams,
when my apprehensions were unfortunately verified; they
APPENDIX, NO. I. .
18
were left in a state of confusion, and little remaining in
them but some deer skins. A quantity of venison packs had
been conveyed a little way off and deposited in the snow; a
path led into the wood, but only to a short distance. Per-
ceiving no marks of violence to have been committed, I
hoped that my former conjectures would be realized and
that all would yet be well; the actions of the Indian, how-
ever, were indicative of extreme perplexity, and not to be
described. Having directed the fire to be removed from
the wigwams, we now proceeded into one more commo-
dious; but on one of our people taking up a brand to light
the fire, the Indian appeared terrified to the last degree, and
used his utmost endeavours to prevent its being carried out;
either apprehending that we were going to destroy the wig-
wams and canoes (of which latter there were six), or that a
fire was going to be kindled for his destruction. For some
time he anxiously peeped through the crevices to see what
was doing, for he was now no longer at liberty but a pri-
soner. Perplexed how to act, and the evening drawing on,
anxiety for the two marines determined me to let the Indian
go, trusting that his appearance and recital of our behaviour
would not only be the means of our men's liberation, but
also that the natives would return with a favourable impres-
sion. Giving him therefore several articles, I endeavoured
to make him understand that I wished his party to return,
and by signs intimated a hope that our people would not be
ill-treated; he smiled and remained by us; he put the wig-
wams in order, and several times looked to the west side of
the pond and pointed. Each wigwam had a quantity of
deer's leg-bones ranged on poles (in all three hundred);
having used the marrow of some of those opposite that we
occupied, the Indian replaced them with an equal number
from one of the others, signifying that those were his; he
pointed out a staff and shewed that it belonged to the per-
son that wore the high cap, the same that I had taken to be
the chief; the length of this badge was nearly six feet, and
it was stained of a red colour.
16
APPENDIX, NO. I.
The day having closed in, the wind began to blow very
hard, with hail, sleet and rain. I saw the necessity of being
prepared for any attack that might be made on us. The
wigwam being of a circular form, a division of the party
was stationed on each side of the entrance, so that those on
guard could have a full command of it; the door-way was
then closed up with a skin, and orders given for no one to
go out. The rustling of the trees, and snow falling from
them, would have made it easy for an enemy to advance
close to us without being heard. I had made an exchange.
with the Indian for his bow and arrows, and at eleven o'clock
laid down to rest; but had not been asleep more than ten
minutes, when I was aroused by a dreadful scream, and ex-
clamation of "O Lord," uttered by Matthew Hughster;
starting up at that instant in his sleep, the Indian gave a
horrid yell, and a musket was instantly discharged. I could
not at this moment but admire the promptness of the watch,
with their arms presented and their swords drawn. This
incident, which had like to have proved fatal, was occa-
sioned by John Guienne, a foreigner, going out; he had
mentioned it to the watch; in coming in again, the skin
covering of the doorway made a rustling noise; Thomas
Taylor, roused by the shriek, fired direct against the en-
trance, and had not Hughster providentially fallen against
him at the moment, which moved the piece from its intended
direction, Guienne must inevitably have lost his life. The
rest of the night was spent in making covers of deer skins
for the locks of the arms.
26th. Wind E.N.E. blowing strong, with sleet and
freezing weather. As soon as it was light the crew were put
in motion, and placing an equal number of blankets, shirts
and tin pots in each of the wigwams, I gave the Indian to
understand that those articles were for the individuals resid-
ing in them; some more presents were given to him, as also
some articles attached to the Red Staff, all which he seemed
to comprehend. At 7 A.M. we left the place, intending to
}
1
APPENDIX, NO. I.
17
return on the Monday following; seeing that the Indian
came on, I signified my wish for him to go back, he how-
ever continued with us, sometimes running on a little before
in a zig-zag direction, keeping his eyes on the ice as having
a trace to guide him, and once pointed to the westward, and
laughed. Being now about two-thirds of a mile from the
wigwam he edged in suddenly, and for an instant halted;
then set off in full speed. We observed that for an instant
he stopped to look at something lying on the ice; but in
another instant we lost sight of him in the haze. On com-
ing up we recognized with horror the bodies of our two
unfortunate companions lying about a hundred yards apart;
that of the corporal was pierced by an arrow in the back;
and three arrows had entered the other: they were laid out
straight with the feet towards the river, and backs upwards,
their heads were off, and no vestige of garments left; several
broken arrows were lying about, and a quantity of bread,
which must have been emptied out of the knapsacks; very
little blood was visible. This melancholy event naturally
much affected all the party, but these feelings soon gave
way to sensations of revenge: although I was fully aware
of the possibility of finding out the route they had taken, yet
prudence called on me to adopt another line of conduct;
that all our movements had been watched I could have no
doubt; and my mind became seriously alarmed for the
safety of those who had been left with the sledges; I con-
ceived it, therefore, of the utmost consequence to lose not
a moment in joining our party. Having, therefore, given
to the people some little refreshment, I caused them to be
formed into a line of march, those having fire-arms being
in the front and rear, those with cutlasses remaining in the
centre, and all were charged to keep as close together as the
intricacies would permit. On opening the first point of the
river-head, one of the men said he observed an Indian look
round the second point, and fall back; on coming up we per-
ceived that two men had certainly been there, and had re-
b
18
APPENDIX, NO. I.
treated; we afterwards saw them at times at a good distance
before us; the tracks shewed that they had shoes on; this
caused considerable perplexity; the guides, and indeed all
the party, were of opinion that the Indians had been to the
sledges, and that those two were returning down the river to
draw us into a trammel, for they supposed a body of them
to be conveniently posted to take advantage of us in some dif-
ficult pass. These conjectures were probable; they strongly
urged my taking to the woods, as being more safe; although
this was certainly true, it would have been attended with
great loss of time, as from the depth and softness of the snow,
we could not possibly perform it under two days; but as the
immediate joining my people was paramount to every other
consideration, for our conjectures might be erroneous, and as
I was, in this instance, fain to suspect that curiosity had pre-
dominated over the obligations of duty, and that want of
consideration had led our men up to view the pond, I
therefore continued on by the river side. At noon we ar-
rived at the fire-place, and finding all well I experienced
great relief after four hours spent in unutterable anxiety for
their fate. The two men who had acted so imprudently
were easily discovered by the sweat which still rolled down
their faces. Being made acquainted with the uneasiness.
they had occasioned, contrition for their misconduct was
manifest, and I was willing to overlook it. Nothing now
remained for us but to make the best of our way down the
river; especially as a thaw had set in and the ice of the river
was speedily breaking up. We therefore set forward, and
after a most painful journey of four days, chiefly through
soft snow or water, succeeded in reaching the Adonis on the
30th January.
It will not be expected that I can give much information
respecting the Indians of Newfoundland. Of a people so
little known, or rather not known at all, any account, how-
ever imperfect, must be interesting. It appears then that
they are permanent inhabitants, and not occasional visitors.
}
1
APPENDIX, NO. I.
19
Their wigwams are of two kinds; one of a circular form,
and the other octagonal. The first of these consists simply,
of a few poles supported by a fork, such as are common to
various tribes in North America; but this kind is used only
as a summer residence whilst employed in the lakes and
rivers procuring food for the winter. Those in which I
found them were of the octagonal structure, and were con-
structed with very considerable pains. The diameter, at
the base, was nearly twenty-two feet; to the height of about
four feet above the surface was a perpendicular well or
fence of wooden piles and earth; on this was affixed a wall-
plate, from which were projected poles forming a conical
roof, and terminating at the top in a small circle, sufficient
for emitting the smoke and admitting the light; this and
the entrance being the only apertures; a right line being
drawn to equal distances from each of the angular points.
towards the centre was fitted neatly with a kind of lattice-
work, forming the fronts of so many recesses which were
filled with dressed deer skins. The fire was placed in the
centre of the area, around which was formed their places of
rest, every one lying with his feet towards the centre, and
the head up to the lattice-work partition, somewhat ele-
vated. The whole wigwam was covered in with birch bark,
and banked on the outside with earth, as high as the upright
wall, by which these abodes, with little fuel, were kept
warm even in the inclemency of the winter. Every part
was finished in a manner far superior to what might rea-
sonably have been expected. According to the report of
William Cull, the storehouses seen by him were built with
a ridge pole, and had gable ends; and the frame of the
store which we saw on the island, I conceive to be of that
description, as it certainly had a ridge pole. Their canoes
were finished with neatness, the hoops and gunnels formed
of birch, and covered in with bark cut into sheets, and
neatly sewed together and lackered over with gum of the
spruce-tree. Their household vessels were all made of
b 2
APPENDIX, NO. I.
20
birch or spruce bark, but it did not appear that these were
applied to any purpose of cookery: I apprehend they do
not boil any part of their diet, but broil or roast the whole;
there were two iron boilers, which must have been plundered
from some of our settlers; to what purpose they may apply
these is uncertain, but they appeared to set a great value
on them, for on deserting the wigwam, they had conveyed
them out of our sight. They were well supplied with axes,
on which a high value is set; these they keep bright and
sharp, as also the blades of their arrows, of which we
found upwards of an hundred new ones in a case.
The reports of the settlers have always magnified the
Newfoundland Indians into a gigantic stature; this, how-
ever, is not the case as far as regards the tribe we saw, and
the idea may perhaps have originated from the bulkiness of
their dress. They are well formed, and appear extremely
healthy and athletic, and the average stature of the men
may probably reach five feet eight inches. With one ex-
ception, their hair was black; their features are more pro-
minent than any of the Indian tribes that I have ever seen,
and from what could be discerned through a lacker of oil
and red ochre (or red earth) with which they besmear them-
selves, I was led to conclude them to be fairer than the
generality of Indian complexions. The exception with
regard to the hair, was in that of a female, bearing all the
marks of an European, with light sandy hair, and features
strongly resembling the French, apparently about twenty-
two years of age; she carried an infant in her cossack; her
demeanour differed very materially from the others; in-
stead of that sudden change from surprise and dismay to
acts of familiarity, she never uttered a word, nor did she
ever recover from the terror our sudden and unexpected
visit had thrown her into. The dress of these Indians
consisted of a loose cossack, without sleeves, but puckered
at the collar to prevent its falling off the shoulders, and
made so long that when fastened up round the haunches
APPENDIX, NO. I.
21
it becomes triple, forming a good security against accidents
happening to the abdomen; this is fringed round with a cut-
ting of the same substance; they also wear leggins, mocki-
sons, and cuffs, the whole made of the deer-skin, and worn
with the hair side next to the body, the outside lackered
with oil and earth, admirably adapted to repel the severity
of the weather; the only difference in the dress of the
two sexes, is the addition of a hood attached to the back
of the cossack of the female for the reception of children.
The males, on having occasion to use their bows, have to
disengage the right shoulder and kneel down on the right
knee; the bow is kept perpendicular, and the lower extre-
mity supported against the left foot; their arrows display
some ingenuity, for the blade, which is of iron, is so pro-
portioned to the shaft, that when missing their object in
water it does not sink; the feathers which direct its course
become now a buoy, and they take it up at pleasure;
the blade of the arrow is shouldered, but not barbed.
Their snow shoes, or racketts as they are called by some,
differed from all others that I have seen; the circular part
of the bow, which was cross barred with skin-thong, was
in breadth about fifteen inches, and lengthways near three
feet and a half, with a tail of a foot long; this was to
counter-balance the weight of the front, before the fore cross
beam. So far their make is like ours, with the difference
of length, which must be troublesome in the woods; but
if my conjectures are right, they travel but little in the
woods when the snow is on the ground; now this being
placed on the ground and the foot in it, it forms a curve
from the surface, both ends being elevated. Their reason for
this is obvious, for the twofold purpose of preventing any
quantity of snow from resting before the foot, and the other
to accelerate their motions. Without causing suspicion,
I could not venture to ascertain their exact numbers; but
I conceived there could not be less than thirty-five grown-up
persons, of whom probably two thirds were women, some
b3
22
APPENDIX, NO. I.
of the men being probably absent; 'the number of children
was about thirty, and most of them not exceeding six years
of age, and never certainly were finer infants seen.
Whatever their numbers may be in the interior of New-
foundland, there did not appear to be any want of pro-
visions; the quantity of venison we saw packed up was
very considerable; there were besides on the margin of the
pond whole carcasses, which must have been killed ere the
frost set in, seven of them being frozen within the ice; the
packs were nearly three feet in length, and in breadth and
depth fifteen inches, packed up with fat venison cleared of
the bone, and in weight from a hundred and fifty to two
hundred pounds, each pack being neatly cased round with
bark. The lakes and ponds abound with trout, and flocks
of wild geese annually visit them in the months of May and
October; and their vigorous appearance points out, that
the exercise to procure food is only conducive to health.
The opinion, therefore, of their numbers being few,
because of their not being seen so much as formerly, is I
think an erroneous one. That they should not appear near
the coasts of the island is easily explained. The settlers
thought they could not do a more meritorious act than to
shoot an Indian whenever he could fall in with him. They
were thus banished from their original haunts into the
interior, of which they had probably but little knowledge,
their chief dependance for food being fish and sea fowl.
They probably were not then as now provided with the
proper implements for killing deer, at least in sufficient
quantities for their subsistence. As our establishments
and population increased to the northward of Cape Freels,
they were obliged to retreat farther from the coast; but the
same evil that forced the natives to retreat, brought with it
the means whereby they might still procure subsistence with
a more independent life; for as the fisheries increased and
the settlers became more numerous, the natives were en-
abled to obtain iron and other articles by plunder and from
wrecks.
APPENDIX, NO. I.
23
There are various opinions as to the origin of the New-
foundland Indians; some conceiving them to have come
from the continent of America, others that they are the
descendants of the old Norwegian navigators, who are
supposed to have discovered this island near a thousand
years ago. I had persons with me that could speak the
Norwegian and most of the dialects known in the north of
Europe, but they could in no wise understand them; to
me their speech appeared as a complete jargon, uttered with
great rapidity and vehemence, and differed from all the
other Indian tribes that I had heard, whose language
generally flows in soft melodious sounds.
The general face of the country in the interior exhibits a
mountainous appearance, with rivers, ponds, and marshes
in the intermediate levels or valleys; the timber, which is
mostly white and red spruce, fine birch and ash, is much
stunted in its growth, and those trecs which have arrived at
any considerable dimensions are generally decayed at the
heart. In advancing into the interior, the birch diminishes
both in size and quantity till it almost wholly disappears.
In many places the woods are burnt down for a considerable
extent, and in others young woods have sprung up, and
their several growths evidently shew the fires to have been
made at different periods, but none had been burnt for
thirty miles below the lake; this general remark is made
from observation on the banks of the river. The pond on
which the natives were found does not appear to have been
discovered from any excursion from the north side of the
island; but there is no question of its having been seen in
some route from the Bay of Islands along by the Humber
River, or from St. George's Bay by a communication of
waters; for in Cook and Lane's chart, published by Laurie
and Whittle in May 1794, there is a pond delineated, which,
from relative distances and appearances, I have no doubt to
be the same on which our unfortunate companions lost their
lives.
b 4
( 24 )
1
k
No. II.
A Relation of the Discovery of the Strait of Anian;
made by me, Capt. Lorenzo Ferrer Maldonado, in
the Year 1588; in which is given the Course of the Voy-
age, the Situation of the Strait, the Manner in which it
ought to be fortified, and also, the Advantages of this
Navigation, and the Loss which will arise from not
prosecuting it.
SIRE,
It will be necessary, in the first place, to state the ad-
vantages which may result from the navigation of the
Strait of Anian into the South Sea :-Having well considered
the route which has hitherto been taken to the Philippines,
China, Japan, and other parts of that sea, it appears from
correct charts that almost half the length of the voyage
will be saved by sailing through this strait. This will
easily be perceived on inspecting a terrestrial globe, or a
nap having the pole in its centre, though not apparent on
a plain chart, which exhibits the meridian at the very pole
as large and expanded as if it were the equinoctial line; and
therefore in such charts one route will not seem shorter
than another: this theory may perhaps require demonstra-
tion yet it is unnecessary to treat of it here; suffice it to
say, that by navigating this strait, little short of half the
voyage is abated;-besides this advantage, it is productive
of another much greater, namely, that after one embarkation
a ship may proceed directly from Spain to the Philippines;
but it cannot tend to shorten the voyage when it is neces-
sary to disembark in New Spain and proceed one hundred
and fifty leagues over-land. Hence it happens that the
greater number of the people, who are sent to those parts as
recruits, remain in New Spain, either exhausted by the
APPENDIX, No. II.
25
fatigues of the voyage, or attracted by the delights of that
country. Besides this it has also another great advantage;
namely, that your Majesty, (trading with all the spiceries of
the Moluccas, the archipelago and other parts,) by means of
this strait, might have sole possession of that trade with
the greatest ease; and storing its produce up in the maga-
zines of Seville, it would yield more than five millions a year,
obliging many nations to come to Spain for that com-
modity, and, in return, they would bring in abundance all
things necessary for those kingdoms, rendering it need-
less to export the silver which comes every year from India,
by which Spain is left in such great want of specie. Let
it be remembered also, that by navigating this strait it
is in our power to prevent the trade between China and
India, and to transfer it to Spain, which will also extend
to the Philippines and the countries in those parts; for the
trade of China with India has been most disadvantageous
to Spain, since it has obstructed the greater part of the
trade Spain used to carry on. This is proved to be the
cause why your Majesty's commerce is so much diminished;
while China and the Philippines carry on this trade with
India to such an extent, that it is impossible for us to
maintain our possessions there, as is requisite, in order to
resist our enemies, who are numerous; in consequence
of which they must decline and fall to nothing:
whereas, on the contrary, by navigating this strait, they
might increase so much in number, wealth and power, that
they would attract fleets of merchant ships in as great
numbers as those which go to India, producing to Spain
great abundance of the products of China and Tartary, and
of other lands at a very cheap rate; for of gold alone
we may obtain two millions every year, from which
we may derive great profit, since gold in China is of less
than half the value that it is here; added to which, many
other commodities may be acquired, which now these
kingdoms are supplied with by their very enemies, who
26
APPENDIX, No. II.
thereby enrich themselves and gather strength to make war
against us.
It is of great consequence also to supply those posses-
sions with soldiers for their defence; and this we might do
with great facility by means of this strait, and prevent our
enemies from becoming masters of them, as might be the
case for want of soldiers and assistance. And God being
willing, by means of this navigation we should have an
opportunity of converting the inhabitants of those parts, for
whose souls it pleased God to suffer-which would be, if not
the greatest of all advantages, certainly not the least. Many
other things might be offered in favour of this navigation--
the most essential, however, is evidently how to prevent the
great disadvantages which would result from not examining
and fortifying the Strait of Anian; for since it is no longer a
matter of doubt that such a place exists, as I testify to have
seen it myself, it is very evident how great a misfortune it
would be were it discovered and fortified by our enemies, who
are endeavouring to find it with great earnestness, as we
know that last year (1608) they sent out a ship from England
to look for it. The Strait of Anian being occupied by our
enemies, would occasion serious injury to us; as on ac-
count of their vicinity to it, they might easily send through
it their fleets which, divided into squadrons of thirties,
might make themselves masters of the possessions of New
Spain and Peru; where, declaring to the natives of India
freedom and liberty of conscience, it is probable that many
of them, if not all, would go over to them; and thus they
might strengthen themselves in those seas to such a degree
that we, having no place from whence we might quickly
send succours, might be irrecoverably deprived of our terri-
tories; and this danger is so much to be feared, that even
if we were not assured by our own eyes that in the South
Sea exists this strait, we should be anxious to seek for it,
in order to fortify it, or to undeceive ourselves if there be
no such place, and to satisfy our minds that no such danger
APPENDIX, NO. II.
27
was to be apprehended. And here let me remark, that if
our enemies have not occasioned us any very great losses in
the South Sea, it is because they possess not a port of such
consequence as that of the Strait of Anian. And now that
I am commanded by your Majesty and the Council of
State to give some account of this voyage, and of the
method of fortifying the strait, it will be proper also to
give the course to be steered, and the situation and harbour
of that strait, with all the circumstances of my voyage;
and beginning with the navigation, by attending to the fol-
lowing narrative, any good seaman will readily discover the
strait.
Departing from Spain, suppose from Lisbon, the course.
is N.W. for the distance of four hundred and fifty leagues;
when the ship will have arrived at latitude 60°, where the
Island of Friesland will be seen, anciently called File or
Fule. It is an island somewhat less than Ireland. From
thence the course must be taken to the westward, running
upon the parallel of 60° for one hundred and eighty leagues,
which will bring the navigator to the land of Labrador,
where the strait of that name or Davis's Strait begins, the
entrance of which is very wide, somewhat more than thirty
leagues; and the land on the coast of Labrador which is to
the west is low, but the opposite side the mouth of the strait
is composed of very high mountains. Here two openings
will appear; between which are these high mountains.
One of these openings runs E.N.E. and the other N.W.;
that which runs E.N.E. must be left, which is the one on
the right hand looking towards the north, because it leads
to Greenland, and ultimately to the sea of Friesland.
Taking therefore the contrary opening, and turning the
prow N.W., by proceeding in this direction eighty leagues,
the ship will be found in latitude 64°. Here the strait
takes another turn to the north, continuing one hundred
and twenty leagues, and as far as latitude 70°, when it
again turns to the N.W. and continues in that direction
28
APPENDIX, NO. 11.
ninety leagues, which will bring the ship to latitude 75°,
nearly at which place the whole Strait of Labrador will
have been passed; that is to say, it begins at 60° and
ends at 75°; being two hundred and ninety leagues in
length, and having three turns or reaches, the first and last.
of which run N.W. and S.E. and the centre one north
and south being sometimes narrower than twenty leagues,
and sometimes wider than forty, and containing many
ports, bays and sheltering places, which might be of ser-
vice in cases of necessity. As far as the 73d parallel
the shores appear to be inhabited, for in many parts of the
coasts we observed smoke.
To some persons it has seemed impossible to navigate at
so high an altitude of the pole ;-in answer to this it may
be observed, that the Hanseatics live in latitude 72°, into
whose harbour, namely, that of St. Michael, and in all the
Bay of St. Nicholas, nearly a thousand merchant ships
enter every year, which, in order to go to the sea of
Flanders, must necessarily ascend to latitude 75º. Having
cleared the Strait of Labrador we began to descend from
that latitude, steering W.S.W. and S.W. for three hun-
dred and fifty leagues, till we arrived in latitude 71°, when
we perceived a high coast without being able to discover
whether it was part of the continent or an island, but
continent it must be opposite
we remarked that if it was the
to the coast of New Spain. From this land, seen at 71°,
we directed our course to the W.S.W. for four hundred
and forty leagues, until we came as low as 60°, in which
parallel the Strait of Anian was discovered.
Thus the same course must be followed which I
made, at least as far as Friesland; for I set sail from the
Baccallaos in quest of that island to procure provisions and
other necessaries, which we obtained from some islands.
lying near it called Zelandillas; they are three in number,
one of which only is inhabited, and the other two serve as
pastures for the cattle of the natives, who are rather savage,
APPENDIX, NO. II.
29
though they seem to be Catholics or Christians.-Return-
ing to our voyage-I say, according to my opinion, that it
would be more prudent, when the Strait of Labrador is
cleared, to coast along the opposite coast of New Spain,
for two reasons; first, to discover what population it con-
tains, and secondly, to seek for provisions and necessaries
for the ships which have to sail through this passage.
According to the narrative above mentioned, it appears
that the distance from Spain to Friesland is four hundred
and fifty leagues, and from thence to Labrador one hundred
and eighty, and to the termination of that strait two hun-
dred and ninety, which make in the whole nine hundred
and twenty leagues; and these added to seven hundred and
ninety, which we found to be the distance from the north
part of the Strait of Labrador to the Strait of Anian, make
in the whole one thousand seven hundred and ten leagues
for the distance between Spain and the Strait of Anian.
The season in which we freed the Strait of Ladrador
was very rigorous, being the beginning of March; and as
we were navigating the strait during the latter part of
February, we suffered great hardships on account of the
darkness, the cold, and the storms; the days during that
time were short, and the cold so great, that the waves of
the sea, which beat against the ship, froze on it in such a
that the vessel seemed to be one mass of crystal;
and we were obliged to break the ice, for it grew so thick
that in some parts we found it more than a pulmo in thick-
manner,
ness.
It is a great mistake to suppose that this sea can freeze
all over; for as it is spacious, and rapid currents are always
running through the strait, these and the great waves oc-
casioned by its continual motion will not suffer it to freeze;
but on the borders of the sea, and the parts where it is
quiet, I think it may freeze, and we perceived that the
water which beat against the shores was frozen. This only
I know, and it was told us in Iceland, that a strait of the
30
APPENDIX, No. II.
f
sea between Friesland and Greenland was frozen during
the greater part of the year; because it was in the midst of
mountains and high land on the side of Friesland, by which
the rays of the sun were prevented from falling upon it;
and being thus surrounded by high hills, it was not affected
by the winds, which might have set its waves in motion,
and therefore the continual calm had allowed it to be
frozen, and rendered it unnavigable; and the same thing
occurs in the seas above mentioned.
But when we returned through this Strait of Labrador,
which was in the month of June and part of July, we en-
joyed continual daylight, so that when we arrived at the
arctic circle, or latitude 6630, we lost not the sight of the
sun, nor did it sink below the horizon until we came to the
middle of the Strait of Labrador; and thus, from the sun
continuing always above the horizon, the air was so warm,
that we felt more heat than even in the central parts of
Spain; yet when we exposed ourselves to the rays of the
sun, they did not much incommode us; and because there
are always great currents and winds coming from the
north, the Strait of Labrador is easily and quickly cleared.
The rapid currents, occasioned by the flux and reflux, are
of great assistance in entering and departing from the
strait, even when the winds are contrary; and as they
blow incessantly from the north, it is needful, on departing
from Spain to Anian, to take advantage of the tides; and
this account we will now conclude with the course of the
ship and the incidents of the voyage.
The strait we discovered in 60°, at the distance of 1710
leagues from Spain, appears, according to ancient tradition,
to be the one which geographers name in their maps the
Strait of Anian; and if it be so, it must be a strait having
Asia on one side and America on the other, which seems to
be the case, according to the following narration :-
As soon as we had cleared the strait, we coasted along
the shores of America for more than one hundred leagues,
APPENDIX, NO. II.
31
the head of the ship being turned S.W., until we arrived at
55° of altitude, on which coast there were no inhabitants,
nor any opening to indicate the vicinity of another strait
through which the South Sea flowing into the North might
insulate that part; and from hence we concluded, that all
that coast belonged to America, and that continuing along
it we might shortly arrive at Quivira and Cape Mendocino.
We left this coast, (which, as was before said, we knew to
continue along,) and standing towards the west, we sailed
four days with the wind abeam, so strong that we made
thirty leagues a day; and having voyaged one hundred
and twenty leagues, according to this calculation and to the
point marked in the map, we discovered a very high land,
and continuing along the coast, from which we kept at a
convenient distance, to fulfil our object, always in the
open sea; sailing at one time to the N.E., at others towards
N.N.E., and again to the N., from whence it appeared to
us that (for the most part) the coast trended N.E. and S.W.
We could not mark any particular points, on account, as I
before said, of our voyaging in the open sea; and, there-
fore, can only affirm, that it is inhabited very nearly to the
strait's entrance, as we saw smoke rising up in many places.
This country, according to the charts, must belong to
Tartary or Cataia; and at the distance of a few leagues from
the coast must be situated the famed city of Cambalu, the
metropolis of Tartary.
Finally, having followed the direction of the said coast, we
found ourselves at the entrance of the same Strait of Anian,
which, fifteen days before, we had passed through to the
open sea, which we knew to be the South Sea, where
Japan, China, the Moluccas, India, New Guinea, and the
land discovered by Captain Quiros, are situated, with all
the coast of New Spain and Peru. At the mouth of the
strait, through which we passed to the South Sea, there is
an harbour situated on the coast of America, capable of
holding five hundred ships, though in some parts it is rough
32
APPENDIX, NO. 11.
open to the
The shores
and a bad roadsted, on account of the currents which, with
the tide flowing from the north to the south, enter the har-
bour, and beat violently against one part of it not far
from the mouth on going in on the right side. It must be
understood that the mouth of the harbour is
north, and runs in an oblique direction.
of this harbour seemed never to have been touched by
human footsteps. In a certain part there is a pool of
stagnant water, on the borders of which we found an im-
mense quantity of the egg shells of sea birds, which gene-
rally lay them on the shores of the sea; these appeared to
have been brought there by the currents from the north,
and were so many in number that they formed a wall a
vara in height and eight palmos in breadth. We found in
this harbour a large river of fresh water, so deep that we
were able to enter with our ship to procure water; and I
think a ship of five hundred tons burden might enter it.
The greater part of this harbour has a sandy bottom, parti-
cularly near the place where the river flows into it, and where
the currents beat; more to the north there is a sheltered spot
formed by a rocky hill, more than two picas in height in some
parts, upon which is a plane surface having a narrow neck,
which the sea surrounds, leaving a jutting of land on the
eastern side; on which situation an extensive colony might
be planted, and for the present a fortress might be raised,
which would be of great service. The land which adjoins this
harbour is very pleasant, containing extensive plains on the
south-east side coming in a point to the harbour, and these
are bounded by a low mountain, in some parts of which we
found rosemary. These plains being cleared might serve for
neat farms or gardens, and on account of the situation the
greater part of them might be well watered. Although
this land is situated in latitude 59°, it is of a very
pleasant temperature; because the mountains, which are
on the north side, shelter and defend all the land lying to
the south. The climate is very good, for the cold of the
APPENDIX, NO. 11.
39
winter is not excessive, but on the contrary very moderate;
because the country is always open to the rays of the sun,
and is unaffected by the north winds, being only open to
those which blow from the south, which are always tempe-
rate, and especially so there, because they come in a direct
line from the sea.
The proof of this was evident from the
species of fruits which we found there. Although this
land is in so high a parallel of latitude, it is not on that
account less fit to be inhabited, since many other countries.
are so which run in the same parallel; namely, Edinburgh
in Scotland, the principal cities of Sweden, Hapsalia and
Ryga, cities in Livonia, Dublin in Ireland, Nidrosia, a city
in Norway, many parts of Moscovia, and many other very
pleasant countries which are inhabited, traded with, and
well known; which, although they are free from the heat
of this coast, are rather cold. The longest day of summer
in this land is eighteen hours and a half, and the longest
night in winter the same; therefore the summer nights are
five hours and a half long, and the day in winter about as
many.
Upon the banks of the river which flows into the harbour,
and on those of another which is lower down on the south-
east side, grow many large trees, most of them fruit-bearing;
some similar to those of Spain, such as apples, pears, and
wild plums, and others quite unknown, of divers forms ;
therefore, that we might fall into no danger, (as might
possibly have happened,) I ordered my people not to eat
any fruit which had not been pecked at by the birds by
this means we avoided eating any hurtful fruit. Most of
these were the fruits of last year remaining upon the trees,
for in that season there was no ripe fruit, being the latter
part of April, all May, and part of June; and as the fruit
was preserved on the trees from one year to another, we
knew that the winter could not have been very severe.
We found in a valley surrounded by the river, which was
low and apparently very temperate, wild grapes and lechias,
C
34
APPENDIX, NO. 11.
1
which is a delicious fruit from India, always found in tem-
perate climates.
At the head of the harbour, looking
between north and east, and along all that quarter of the
compass, there are mountains not very high but easy of
cultivation, and abounding in all kinds of game, where we
found partridges, rabbits, (somewhat different from those in
Spain,) deer marked with black and white spots upon a
grey skin, and long branching horns, but some had not any
horns.
We saw two species of swine, one kind similar to those
of India which have the navel in the spine, but larger, and
the others resembling the "javalies" of Spain. We found
also buffaloes and many other animals, but no beasts of
prey. The sea produces abundance of fish, and all kinds
of shell-fish are very good and savoury, larger than any we
know of here; for we caught crabs half a vara in width,
those of our coasts not being larger than the palm of a
hand. The coast on the side of Asia or Tartary have very
high mountains, so high that in some parts of their greatest
altitude they are covered with snow all the year, particularly
those which look to the north; and these are so rugged and
craggy, that they appear incapable of cultivation; the
greater part of the trees growing on them are very lofty
pines, which grow down to the shores of the sea. In the
same part of Asia, opposite the entrance of the harbour,
there is a pool of stagnant sea-water, in which was growing
a large plantation of reeds, springing up out of this same
water, which we found to be an admirable fishing place;
here we caught many large fish, some of them such as we
had known before, namely, conger-eels, soles, and others,
much larger than those which are found here. We saw
numbers of large fish swimming past us in their way from
the South to the North Sea. Among them were whales,
porpoises, and other great monsters.
The Strait of Anian is fifteen leagues in length, and can
be freed easily with a tide lasting six hours, and those tides
APPENDIX, NO. II.
35
are very rapid. There are six turnings in all this length,
and two entrances, which lie from north to south. I mean,
that the bearing of the two is north and south. The en-
trance on the north side (through which we passed) is less
than half a quarter of a league in width, and on both sides
there are two ridges of rocks; but the rock on the side of
Asia is higher and more steep than the other, receding
below in such a manner that nothing which falls from the
upper part of the mountain can reach its base. The en-
trance into the South Sea near the harbour is more than a
quarter of a league in width, and from thence the passage
runs in a slanting direction, increasing the distance between
the two coasts. In the middle of the strait, at the termi-
nation of the third winding, there is a great rock and an
islet, formed by a rugged rock three "estadus" in height,
more or less, and as its form is round, its diameter must
be two hundred paces; its distance from the land of Asia
is very little, but the sea on that side is full of shoals and
reefs, and cannot be navigated but with boats. The dis-
tance between this islet and the continent of America is
less than half a quarter of a league in width; and although
its channel is so deep that two or even three ships might
sail through together, it is near the shelving places of the
banks upon which with little trouble there might be built
two bastions, contracting the channel to musket-shot. Upon
this island, or upon the shoals and the opposite coast,
there might be raised, as was before said, two bastions,
which, with the assistance of artillery, might guard and
defend the strait in great safety; and if the currents were
not so strong, there might be placed a chain which would
be of great service; even now we might work with so much
diligence as to overcome the currents. The situation of
this strait is in such form, that with three watch-towers
communicating with one another we might see out into the
North Sea as far as thirty leagues, and by means of signals
might give notice to the bastions and fortresses of the harbour
C Q
$6
APPENDIX, NÒ. II.
1
of the approach of any ships, and prevent them from pro-
ceeding through the strait, if they were enemies' ships, by
retaining continually in the harbour two ships prepared for
such an event; these should cross the course of the vessel,
endeavouring to pass between the two bastions; and if she
had to wait for the tide, they might delay and embarrass
her while the fortresses are cannonading and sinking her;
for it must be mentioned, that though many ships might
come together, not more than two or three at once
could pass through the channel: and if we should wish
to have a look out to the South Sea, (though I do not
think that necessary at present,) the strait has two high
mountains, one on the coast of Asia, the other on that of
America, which look one to another, and both of them ad-
joining to the fortress and watch-towers; and these, com-
manding a view over the two coasts in opposite directions,
each might give notice of all the vessels sailing in the
South Sea. By which means this strait might be well
defended, and the Spanish alone might navigate it, and
enjoy all the great advantages it holds out; for in truth I
know of no place yet discovered which thus holds commu-
nication with almost all the countries of the world; for
from this strait we may sail to all of them; and thus we
may presume that in course of time it would prove a most
powerful and rich settlement.
The entrance to the strait on the north side is most
difficult to be discovered, because its coast runs east and
west, and the two sides formed by the strait close one over
the other; and as its entrance and the turns it makes are
described to run north-east and south-west, it cannot be
seen from the open sea, and it is therefore not surprising
that it has escaped the notice of those who sought it.
When we arrived there we did not discover it for some
days, during which we were wandering up and down that
coast, under the direction of the pilot, Juan Martinez, a
Portugueze and a native of Algarve, an old man of great
APPENDIX, NO. II.
37
experience; I found, however, that he was ignorant of the
landmarks of these mountains, (which I copied for another
voyage, if I should undertake it, which I think of doing); for
although we knew the strait was to be found in 60° of latitude
in the extensive coast running east and west, it occasioned
us great doubt, as it appeared to the pilot that we had not
arrived near the strait within one hundred leagues according
to his reckoning of the ship's course, and to me it seemed
that we were already near it, as it fell out; for, going in a
boat to coast along the shores of the sea, the same current
carried me through the strait, so that it was discovered.
The reason of my conjecturing that we had arrived at the
strait, and were close upon it, was occasioned by the strong
currents we found there, running from the land and returning
to it; they were so strong that at times, when in the open
sea and at some distance from the coast, we found ourselves
close upon it, and at other times, being near the land, we
found ourselves in the open sea.
On the land close to the strait is a very high peak of a
lofty mountain on the coast of Asia of a white colour; this
peak is rugged and apparently inaccessible; on its highest
point are three large trees which, when viewed from the
north, are seen very distinctly one from another, and on
each side of this high peak the mountains present the ap-
pearance of two ravines, easily perceived. One league from
the mouth of the strait on the west side there is a high
and steep rock, which is surrounded by the sea, and when
the tide is low I think it may be distant from the coast four
picas. At the eastern side of the entrance to the strait
there is a large and beautiful river of fresh water and many
trees on its banks, from which we watered our ship. Here
is also a good sheltering place formed by two great rocks,
which we found in this place. The mountains visible on
the coast of Asia from the north side are very high indeed,
being perceptible from the North Sea, having some very
high trees growing on them, which seem to be mostly
c3
38
APPENDIX, NO. II.
pines; the mountains on the coast of America are lower
and their trees are less, but on neither side do they appear
to bear fruit.
In the harbour where our ship anchored, namely, the one
mentioned as being at the entrance of the strait on the
south side, we remained from the commencement of April
to the middle of June; when a large vessel of eight
hundred tons burden came there from the South Sea in
order to pass through the strait, wherefore we put our-
selves on our guard; but having come to an understanding
with one another, I found them willing to give us some of
the merchandise they carried, the greater part of which
evidently consisted of articles similar to those manufactured
in China, such as brocades, silks, porcelain, feathers,
precious stones, pearls, and gold. These people seemed
to be Hanseatics who inhabited the Bay of St. Nicholas
or the Port of St. Michael. In order to understand each
other, we were forced to speak Latin; those of our party.
who were acquainted with that language talking with those
on board the ship who understood it. They did not seem
to be Catholics, but Lutherans; they said they came from a
very large city little more than one hundred leagues from
the strait, and, though I cannot well remember its name, I
think they called it Robr, or some such name, which they
said had a good harbour and a navigable river, and was sub-
ject to the great Khan, as it belonged to Tartary, and that
in that port they had left another ship belonging to their
country. We could not learn more from them, for they
acted with great caution and little confidence, being fearful
of our party; wherefore we separated from them, and
having left them near the strait in the North Sea, we set
sail towards Spain. We had reason to think these people
Hanseatics because, as they live in latitude 72°, it is easy
and very advantageous to them to navigate this strait,
Having thus given a full account of the particulars of
this voyage, and of the disadvantages which may be the
APPENDIX, NO. II.
39
consequence of not following it up, it may be proper to
give some account of the things needful to be provided
by any person undertaking this voyage, and of the expenses.
which would be incurred by the necessary preparations.
List of Necessaries and of the Expenses of this Voyage.
In the first place there must be provided three ships; the
principal vessel of one hundred and fifty tons burden, and the
other two each one hundred, and these must be constructed
with certain divisions in the hold, according to a plan which
shall be given in due time. By this contrivance a vessel may
be preserved from sinking even though a leak should spring
in her bottom, because that division alone would be filled
with water in which the damage occurred, and not any of
the others, as the partitions would all be caulked; and even
supposing the vessel should receive some damage between
wind and water, the water will run out again at the same
place in which it entered, as I am convinced of, by the ex-
perience of the ship in which I made this voyage. These
ships should be cross-ribbed and lined with lead, having many
knees and bolts, the heads of which must be closely let
into the wood. The lower part of these vessels should be
flat and well ballasted: being constructed in this manner,
any one of the vessels will lie close to the wind and safe
though situated near a lee shore, which is the greatest
danger in which a ship can be placed; for these ships are
very weatherly, and will lie within five points of the compass;
and if by mischance they should happen to run aground on
some sand-bank, which might happen in sailing through
unknown seas, they would be got off with more ease than
ordinary vessels; from having their bottoms flat they would
not upset, and might hope for assistance from their com-
panions in the open sea. It would be proper likewise to
carry out two boats, one of them completely equipped,
and the other capable of being so in case of necessity, in
C 4
40
APPENDIX, No. II.
event of the first being lost; and these must carry out
oars, that they may better come up to their ships in all
weathers, or perform other service which may be required;
for this bark must sail near the coast within sight of the
three ships, which must be always separated from each
other four leagues at sea, and must give them notice of
any remarkable circumstances which may appear on the
coast, and therefore it is advisable that its commander be
a man of intelligence, courageous, cautious, and trust-
worthy; this boat must be large enough to contain twenty
butts of water in case of necessity; which together with
the three ships and the cutter in frame, all of them fit for.
sea and well stored, will cost eight thousand ducats.
It would also be advisable to carry out in these ships six
pieces of cannon, for as these ships must be very strong
they can well sustain them; and also twelve lesser pieces;
which eighteen pieces of cannon must be divided between
the three ships, and will cost one thousand five hundred
ducats. Also two hundred muskets, at three ducats each,
will cost six hundred ducats. Moreover one hundred and
fifty arquebusses, if it should be necessary to go on shore, at
two ducats each, would cost three hundred ducats. Pikes,
gunpowder, lead, fireworks, ropes, pumps, balls for the
cannon and other ammunition, would come to seven hun-
dred ducats. There must be three pilots, prudent, active
men, and Spaniards, with their mates, and twenty-four
good seamen, who must be divided between the three
ships, who will return expert from this voyage, and may be
the pilots of this passage: and finally, there must be em-
ployed two hundred men, and if possible the greater part
must be seamen, because when it is necessary a sailor can
serve as a soldier, but on no occasion can a soldier perform
the duties of a mariner; all of whom must be divided in this
manner: eighty men in the captain's ship, and in each of
the other ships fifty men; and the twenty remaining in the
bark, that if there should be occasion to make use of the
par, there may be people ready for that purpose ;—and
APPENDIX,
41
NO. II.
•
these may be paid by the year, giving each of the pilots one
thousand ducats, and each of the two hundred men forty-
eight ducats, at the rate of four ducats a month, which will
amount to nine thousand six hundred ducats a year. And
because, among these two hundred men there must be
experienced naval and military officers, these, attended
with pilots, would make the expenses of a year amount to
three thousand ducats.
There must be carried out supplies of cables, anchors,
wood, pitch, hemp, and sails; tools, nails, and slips of
lead, to repair any damage occasioned by the enemies'
cannon, which will amount to one thousand five hundred
ducats.
Also two hundred ducats' worth of wax tapers for the
lanterns of the Captains and Commodore; for as the
days in this passage are very long and the nights short,
there will be no necessity for any more, for without doubt
the sun will for many days not descend out of sight.
+
There must be divided among the ships two hundred
ducats' worth of medicine. And, as all maritime affairs are
uncertain, it would be well to carry out provisions for two
years, for the wine at least may serve on returning; and
thus reckoning upon the usual rations, there will be requi-
site for the three ships two thousand two hundred quintals
of biscuit, which, costing four ducats a quintal, will amount
to eight thousand eight hundred ducats. And as the biscuit
may spoil, in default of which the people would suffer
great inconveniences, it would be well to export four hun-
dred quintals of flour, which, purchased at two ducats a
quintal, will cost eight hundred ducats. The rations of
wine during two years will amount to nine thousand one
hundred and twenty-five measures of thirty-two pints,
which, at the rate of six reals a pint, would cost four thou-
sand nine hundred and seventy-seven ducats.
Hung beef, bacon, and chickens for the invalids, two
thousand five hundred ducats; four hundred ducats' worth
42
APPENDIX, NO. II.
of dried fish, six hundred ducats' worth of oil, vinegar, and
pulse; three hundred ducats' worth of cheese, one hun-
dred ducats' worth of salt-for it will be of much im-
portance to carry out a good quantity, as it will be of use
when there is plenty of fish, or when arriving at a place
where meat can be procured, they may be preserved during
the whole voyage by means of the salt.
All which expenses will amount to forty-seven thousand
and seventy-seven ducats; and this is the utmost that the
fitting out of the ships will cost, though there must be
other lesser things which are absolutely necessary: and on
good consideration it will be perceived how cheaply so
great an advantage may be purchased, which is indeed one
of the greatest that can now offer itself; for by this means
may be prevented the great misfortunes which may befall
the kingdoms of your Majesty from neglecting to navigate
this strait; and finally, it will be advisable to take posses-
sion of whatever others may have seized upon, to our
prejudice; for I know not in what the policy consists that
would suffer strangers to take possession of that which has
been discovered by Spaniards, particularly when it is in
their power to injure us by so doing, and to make war on
us and not only this, but should they acquire possession
of this strait, they will without doubt give the best fruits of
this kingdom to the devil-the souls of the natives-dis-
seminating among them their wicked and perverted doc-
trines; for we run all these risks by neglecting the
navigation of this strait and leaving it free for our enemies,
by which they may get possession of all those kingdoms,—
and that they may do with greater facility by means of the
recent discovery of Terra Australis; for as it is so large
and extensive a region, (according to their account of it,)
whoever has possession of it will also be masters of the
whole South Sea; for if notwithstanding the distance of the
route they have to pass, round the Cape of Good Hope,
the enemy has found means to establish in India and those
}
、
.
•
APPENDIX, NO. II.
48
·
parts six factories, and, as is reported, eight fortresses in
the island of Tirnati, to the great prejudice of the territo-
ries of your Majesty; it is easy to perceive that if they
should discover this short passage and convenient harbour,
they might annoy us much more. On which account it is
much more reasonable to consider the losses which may
follow from not taking and fortifying this strait, than the
expenses which would accrue from making the voyage; for
whoever wishes to perform and to enjoy great achievements
must suffer great expenses, and go through many anxieties.
Finally, if your Majesty obtains the sovereignty of the seas,
you will also obtain that of the land, and if not, it will be
difficult to preserve what we already possess; and this I
speak as a man who has much experience of sea affairs,
and well knows of how great value is the sovereignty of
the sea, without which it is impossible to enjoy the empire
of the land; and these last reasons will be sufficient for
those who understand state affairs-and if there are any
who are negligent of their duty, let them be vigilant and
put themselves on their guard, for I suspect that we have
many public and secret enemies, who have many motives
for wishing ill to Spain; and let no one say, as I think has
been said, that there is not money enough for such enter-
prises, since your Majesty is necessitous; and if there be
any one who alleges this, and perceives his king to be in
want, let him assist him with part of his riches, and not
to forget that it will be better to dispose of them in this
manner, than be deprived of all his possessions in some
future time by the enemy: much as he may expend in this
way, the man who undertakes to carry into execution so
arduous an enterprise will lay out much more, for I, being
a seaman, am not ignorant how many dangers attend it; he
alone will bear witness to it, who shall experience the vio-
lence of the north sea, the storms and the turbulence of its
waters. Certainly, sailing in company, and with such good
ships as will be found for this voyage, there is no reason to
44
APPENDIX, No. II.
dread the sea however turbulent it may be; but they must
coast along the shore for reasons mentioned elsewhere,
and coasting along in such a rough sea is dangerous above
all things, so much so, that there is no sailor whose courage
would not fail him at the very thought of it; I think,
therefore, that if there be any one willing to undertake it,
it is advisable not to lose sight of him, for there may be
found one who will do it, but I doubt whether there will be
two; and let it be remembered, that such voyages cannot
be of the least profit to the person who performs them,
but on the contrary will be attended with many inconve-
niences and troubles to him. As to its profits, I know not
whether it will be productive of any the first time; and we
have no reason to be assured that our enemies may not
have discovered this passage or some other which leads
into the South Sea, because we know they are great sea-
men, and as enterprising as myself, ready to rush forward
with impetuosity as I have done; and I repeat, Sire, that
their desire to discover this strait is so great, (as I learn
from the account of Captain Balthazar de Just, residing in
Fontarabia, who was corresponding with me concerning
this affair on the 6th of July, this year, 1609,) that the
French have established a garrison on the banks of the
river in Canada, which is three hundred leagues within
Newfoundland, confident of discovering from thence a
passage to the South Sea. I mention this, not because I
think it likely that they will discover a passage, (because it
is impossible that this river can run farther than one hun-
dred leagues, for I coasted along the greater part of it to
discover the coast of America about the South Sea, and I
found no strait nor entrance of a river which was of any
importance,) but I mention it, Sire, that your Majesty
may perceive with what diligence our enemies are making
use of every means of discovering a passage.
Also let me advise your Majesty, that if you should send
an expedition on another voyage of discovery, let it be
APPENDIX, NO. II.
45
done secretly, and arranged in such a manner that the
captains must be commanded not to open their instructions
until they have proceeded forty leagues from the land; be-
cause, by means of this precaution, we may deceive the
spies, supposing them prepared to observe us; and if it
please God that we should again discover this strait, it is
advisable to have it fortified the very next year, because it
is utterly impossible that the numerous people who will be
necessary for this expedition will all be so silent and so pru-
dent as not to make public this voyage and its discoveries,
and if it is heard of by our enemies, they themselves may
seek, find, and fortify it in such a manner that many men
and very great expenses will be necessary to regain it from
them; and therefore it would be advisable to be very cir-
cumspect from the moment the expedition shall depart for
the discovery.
Copied from the original 4to. MS. (probably of the Author
himself,) in the possession of His Excellency the Duc d'In-
fantado: from the same manuscript the map and sketches
were also copied; all of which I have carefully revised with
attention.
Madrid, 24th March, 1781.
JUAN BAUTISTA MUNON.
1
46
APPENDIX, No. 11.

D
NORTH
G
C
F
A. Mouth of the strait on the north side.
B. High peak with three trees.
C. Ravines.
D. Deep river, from whence we drew water.
E. Another river.
F. An insulated rock.
G. America.
H. Asia.
APPENDIX, NO. II.
47

1.
F
E
C
MD.
A
D
A. Harbour.
B. Situation to build upon.
CC. Mouths of the strait.
DDD. Watch towers, looking into the North Sea.
EE, Bastions, one on the island and the other on
the continent.
F. Asia.
G. America.
48
APPENDIX, NỌ. II.

W
M
SOUTH
A. Harbour, in which 500 ships may
B. Situation for a fort, or town.
anchor.
C. Entrance to the harbour on the south.
D. Deep river of good water.
E. Good river with many fruit trees.
F. Plantation of reeds, near which is the good fishing
place.
G. Level table mountains, capable of being cultivated as
corn fields.
H. Mountains abounding in game.
I. High mountains with pine trees growing on them.
L. Asia.
M. America.
London: Printed by C. Roworth, Bell-yard, Temple-bar.

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