The Result Of This Voyage Was, However,
Important In One Respect; As It Gave Vise To The Very Beneficial Fishery Of
The English On The Banks Of Newfoundland.
The French had already engaged in
this fishery.
In 1576, the idea of a north-west passage having been revived in England,
Frobisher was sent in search of it, with two barks of twenty-five tons
each, and one pinnace of ten tons. He entered the strait, leading into what
was afterwards called Hudson's Bay: this strait he named after himself. He
discovered the southern coast of Greenland; and picking up there some stone
or ore which resembled gold, he returned to England. The London goldsmiths
having examined this, they reported that it contained a large proportion of
gold. This induced the Russian Company to send him out a second time, in
1577; but during this voyage, and a third in 1578, no discoveries of
consequence were made. In the years 1585, 86, and 87, Captain Davis, who
was in the service of an English company of adventurers, made three voyages
in search of a north-west passage. In the first he proceded as far north as
sixty-six degrees forty minutes, visited the southwest coast of Greenland,
and gave his own name to the straits that separate it from America. At this
time the use of a kind of harpoon was known, by which they were enabled to
kill porpoises; but though they saw many whales, they knew not the right
manner of killing them. In his second voyage an unsuccessful attempt was
made to penetrate between Iceland and Greenland, but the ships were unable
to penetrate beyond sixty-seven degrees north latitude. The west coast of
Greenland was examined; but not being able to sail along its north coast,
he stretched across to America, which he examined to latitude fifty-four.
In his last voyage, Davis reached the west coast of Greenland, as far as
latitude seventy-two. All his endeavours, however, to find a north-west
passage were ineffectual.
In 1607, Hudson, an experienced seaman of great knowledge and intrepidity,
sailed in search of this passage. He directed his course straight north,
and reached the eighty-second degree of latitude, and the seventy-third
degree of west longitude. During this voyage more of the eastern coast of
Greenland was discovered than had been previously known. In his second
voyage, which was undertaken in 1608, he endeavoured to sail between Nova
Zembla and Spitzbergen, but unsuccessfully: of this and his first voyage we
have very imperfect accounts. His third voyage was undertaken for the
Dutch: in this he discovered the river in America which bears his name. His
fourth and last voyage, in which he perished, and to which he owes his
principal fame as a navigator, was in the service of the Russia Company of
England. In this voyage he reached the strait which bears his name: his
crew mutinied at this place, and setting him on shore, returned to England.
As soon as the Russia Company learned the fate of Hudson, they sent one
Captain Button in search of him, and also to explore the straits which he
had discovered:
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