He Therefore Resolved To Attempt To
Reach This Bay By Sea.
In the course of this undertaking he met with a few
English, who had settled themselves near Port Nelson River:
These he
attacked, and by their defeat became master of the country. He afterwards
explored the whole district, and returned to Quebec with a large quantity
of valuable furs and English merchandize; but meeting with ill-treatment in
Quebec, and afterwards at the court of France, he came to England, where he
was introduced to the Count Palatine Rupert. The prince patronized all
laudable and useful enterprises; and persuaded the king to send out Captain
Gillam, and the Frenchman with him. The ship was loaded with goods to
traffic for furs. They passed through Hudson's Straits to Baffin's Bay, as
far as 75 degrees north latitude: they afterwards sailed as far to the
south as 51 degrees, where, near the banks of a river, called after Prince
Rupert, they built Charles Fort. This was the first attempt to carry on
commerce in this part of America.
We must now return to the period of the first attempt to find out a
north-east passage to India. A society of merchants had been formed in
London for this purpose. Sebastian Cabot, either the son or the grandson of
John Cabot, and who held the situation of grand pilot of England under
Edward VI., was chosen governor of this society. Three vessels were fitted
out: one of them is particularly noticed in the contemporary accounts, as
having been sheathed with thin plates of lead. Sir Hew Willoughby had the
chief command: Captain Richard Chanceller and Captain Durfovill commanded
the other two vessels under him. Willoughby, having reached 72 degrees of
north latitude, was obliged by the severity of the season to run his ship
into a small harbour, where he and his crew were frozen to death. Captain
Durfovill returned to England. Chanceller was more fortunate; for he
reached the White Sea, and wintered in the Dwina, near the site of
Archangel. While his ship lay up frozen, Chanceller proceeded to Moscow,
where he obtained from the Czar privileges for the English merchants, and
letters to King Edward: as the Czar was at this period engaged in the
Livonian war, which greatly interrupted and embarrassed the trade of the
Baltic, he was the more disposed to encourage the English to trade to the
White Sea. We have already remarked, in giving an account of the voyage of
Ohter, in King Alfred's time, that he had penetrated as far as the White
Sea. This part of Europe, however, seems afterwards to have been entirely
lost sight of, till the voyage of Chanceller; for in a map of the most
northern parts of Europe, given in Munster's Geographia, which was printed
in 1540, Greenland is laid down as joined to the north part of Lapland;
and, consequently, the northern ocean appears merely as a great bay,
enclosed by these countries. Three years afterwards, the English reached
the coasts of Nova Zembla, and heard of, if they did not arrive at, the
Straits of Waygats.
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