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.
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