EXPLORATIONS TO THE NORTH-WEST.
BY CHARLES C. SMITH,
_Treasurer of the Massachusetts Historical Society._
THE fresh spirit of maritime adventure which marked the last decade of
the fifteenth century and the first quarter of the sixteenth century,
owed its origin to mistaken theories as to the distance between the
west of Europe and the east of Asia. Columbus believed that the
land which he first discovered was an island on the coast of Japan;
and he seems never to have relinquished this idea. The contemporary
geographers all cherished the same mistake; and the early maps give a
much better representation of the coast-line of Asia than they do of
the shores of North America.[185] It is a curious fact that the true
position and form of South America were familiar to cartographers
long before there was any exact knowledge of the northern half of the
continent. North America was regarded as an island or a collection
of islands, through which it would not be difficult to find a short
passage to Zipangu and Cathay,—the modern Japan and China.[186]
Gradually these mistakes yielded to more correct views; but it was
still believed that a feasible passage existed around the northern
shore of the new continent. This belief was the inspiring motive of
all the early northwestern explorations, and it lingered almost to
our own time, long after every one knew that such a passage would be
of no practical use. At length the problem has been solved; but the
introduction of new methods of ocean and land trade and travel has
deprived it of all but a purely scientific and geographical interest.
Meanwhile the search for a northwest passage has developed an heroic
endurance and a perseverance in surmounting obstacles scarcely
paralleled anywhere else, and has added largely to the stores of human
knowledge.
At the head of the long list of explorers for a northwest passage stand
the names of the Cabots; but the intricate questions as to the measure
of just fame to be assigned to father and son have been fully treated
in another chapter of this work,[187] and neither John nor Sebastian
penetrated the more northern waters with which our inquiry is mainly
concerned. It is enough now to recall their names as the leaders in an
enterprise in which for nearly three centuries England took a foremost
part, and that so early as 1497 John Cabot set sail in the hope of
this great discovery. Within the next half century he was followed by
his son Sebastian, the Cortereals, Cartier, and Hore, not one of whom
sought to reach a high northern latitude. It was not until Frobisher
sailed on his first voyage that the real northwest explorations can
be said fairly to have begun. Since that time more than one hundred
voyages and land journeys have been undertaken in this vain quest.
In two of the northwestern voyages of Martin Frobisher the discovery
of a short way to the South Sea was only a secondary object. The
adventurers at whose cost they were undertaken looked mainly to
the profit from a successful search for gold, though they were not
unmindful of the advantages to be gained by shortening the distance to
the Spice Islands of the East. In the bitter quarrel between Frobisher
and Michael Lok, after the third voyage, it was charged that Frobisher
had neglected this part of the undertaking. But it was natural that
Lok, who had no doubt lost heavily by the voyages, should be angry
with Frobisher, and endeavor to make the most of any failure on his
part to carry out the whole plan; and there is no reason to believe
that Frobisher wilfully neglected the interests or the wishes of his
employers, however much they may have been disappointed. The whole
amount subscribed for the three voyages was upward of twenty thousand
pounds, and of this sum Lok subscribed, for himself and his children,
nearly one fourth. Among the subscribers were Queen Elizabeth, who
invested four thousand pounds, Lord Burleigh, the Earl and Countess of
Warwick, the Earl of Leicester, the Earl and Countess of Pembroke, Sir
Philip Sidney, Sir Thomas Gresham, Sir Francis Walsingham, and others
scarcely less conspicuous in that generation.
Frobisher’s first expedition consisted of two small vessels, the
“Gabriel” and the “Michael,” one of twenty-five tons and the other of
twenty tons, and a pinnace of ten tons. They set sail from Blackwall
on the 15th of June, 1576, but it was not until the 1st of July that
they were clear of the coast of England. Not long after coming in sight
of Friesland, Frobisher parted company with the pinnace, in which
were four men, who were never seen again; and about the same time the
“Michael” slipped away without any warning, and returned to England.
Nevertheless, Frobisher pressed on, and on the 21st he entered the
opening now known as Frobisher’s Strait or Bay, “having upon eyther
hande a great mayne or continent; and that land uppon hys right hande
as hee sayled westward, he judged to be the continente of Asia, and
there to bee devided from the firme of America, which lyeth uppon
the lefte hande over against the same.”[188] Into this bay, as it is
now known to be, he sailed about sixty leagues, capturing one of the
natives, whom he carried to England. The land, Meta Incognita, he
took possession of in the name of the Queen of England, commanding his
company, “if by anye possible meanes they could get ashore, to bring
him whatsoever thing they could first find, whether it were living or
dead, stocke or stone, in token of Christian possession.”[189] Some
of the men returned to him with flowers, some with green grass, “and
one brought a peece of black stone, much lyke to a seacole in coloure,
which by the waight seemed to be some kinde of mettall or mynerall.”
Frobisher reached England on his return in the following October, and
on his arrival presented the stone to one of his friends, an adventurer
in the voyage. The wife of this gentleman accidentally threw it into
the fire, where it remained for some time, when it was taken out and
quenched in vinegar. It then appeared of a bright gold color, and on
being submitted to a goldfinder in London, was said to be rich in gold;
and large profits were promised if the ore was sufficiently abundant.
[Illustration
This cut follows the engraving in the Hakluyt Society’s edition of
_Frobisher’s Voyages_.]
With this report, there was little difficulty in providing means for
a second voyage. The new expedition consisted of a “tall ship of her
Majesty’s,” named the “Ayde,” of two hundred tons, and of two smaller
vessels, with the same names as those in the former voyage, but now
said to be of thirty tons each. They were manned in all by one hundred
and twenty men, to which number Frobisher was limited by his orders.
After some delay, he sailed from Harwich on the 31st of May, 1577. By
his orders he was directed to proceed at once to the place where the
mineral was found, and set the miners at work. There he was to leave
the “Ayde,” and then to sail to another place visited on his first
voyage, where a further attempt at mining was to be made, and where one
of the small barks was to be left. With the remaining bark he was to
sail fifty or a hundred leagues farther west, to make “certayne that
you are entred into the South Sea; and in yo^r passage to learne all
that you can, and not to tarye so longe from the ‘Ayde’ and worckmen
but that you bee able to retorne homewards w^{th} the shippes in due
tyme.” If the mines should prove less productive than it was hoped
they would be, he was to “proceade towards the discovering of Cathaya
w^{th} the two barcks, and returne the ‘Ayde’ for England agayne.”[190]
Frobisher had his first sight of Friesland on the 4th of July; and he
reached Milford Haven, in Wales, on his return voyage, about the 23d
of September. During this period of a little more than two months, his
energies were mainly devoted to procuring ore, of which, in twenty
days, he obtained nearly two hundred tons; but he also made as careful
an examination as was practicable of the region previously visited by
him, and added something to the stock of geographical knowledge. Two of
the natives were captured, and were carried to England to be educated
as interpreters.
Frobisher’s third voyage was planned on a much larger scale than any
other which hitherto had been sent to the Arctic regions, and he
was placed in command of fifteen vessels. They were all collected
at Harwich by the 27th of May, 1578; and after receiving their
instructions from Frobisher, they sailed together on the 31st. On
the 2d of July they reached the mouth of Frobisher’s Bay; but after
entering it a short distance, they found it so choked with ice that
it was impossible to proceed. One of the vessels was soon sunk by the
ice, and all suffered more or less. After beating about for several
days, they entered a strait, supposed at first to lead to their desired
goal, but which was, in fact, what is now known as Hudson’s Strait, the
entrance to the great bay which bears his name, “havyng alwayes a fayre
continente uppon their starreboorde syde, and a continuance still of an
open sea before them.” According to Best, one of the captains, and an
historian of the expedition, Frobisher was probably one of the first
to discover the mistake, though he persuaded his followers that they
were in the right course and the known straits. “Howbeit,” he adds,
“I suppose he rather dissembled his opinion therein than otherwyse,
meaning by that policie (being hymself ledde with an honorable desire
of further discoverie) to enduce y^e fleete to follow him, to see a
further proofe of that place. And, as some of the company reported,
he hath since confessed, that, if it had not bin for the charge and
care he had of y^e fleete and fraughted shippes, he both would and
could have gone through to the South Sea, called Mare del Sur, and
dissolved the long doubt of the passage which we seeke to find to the
rich countrey of Cataya.”[191] Toward the latter part of July it was
determined not to proceed any farther, and after many difficulties and
dangers they returned to Meta Incognita. It had been their intention
to erect a house here, and to leave a considerable party to spend the
winter. But after a full consideration it was decided that this plan
was impracticable, and it was relinquished. A house of lime and stone
was, however, built on the Countess of Warwick’s Island, in which
numerous articles were deposited. On the last day of August the fleet,
having completed their loading with more than thirteen hundred tons of
ore, sailed for England, where they arrived at various times about the
1st of October, and with the loss of not more than forty men in all.
The ore proved to be of very little value, and the adventurers lost a
large part of what they had subscribed.[192]
Of the voyages of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, who is often included among the
northwest explorers, little need be said here; for though he wrote an
elaborate _Discourse of a Discovery for a new Passage to Cataia_, to
stimulate the search for a northwest passage, the voyage in which he
lost his life was not extended beyond the coasts of Newfoundland.[193]
[Illustration]
[Illustration: FROM THE MOLINEAUX GLOBE, 1592.
[This globe is now in the Middle Temple. (See Editorial Note E, at the
end of Dr. De Costa’s chapter.) This is thought to have been made,
in part at least, from Davis’s charts, which are now lost. Kohl’s
_Catalogue of Maps in Hakluyt_, p. 23. The sketch is to be interpreted
thus:—
1. Grocland.
2. Hope Sanderson.
3. London cost.
4. Marchant Yle.
5. Davies island.
6. Challer’s Cape.
7. Gilbert’s Sound.
8. Easter Point.
9. Regin. Eli. forland.
10. Fretum Davis.
11. Mare Conglelatum.
12. C. Bedford.
13. Sandrson’s tour.
14. Mont Ralegh.
15. E. Cumberland isles.
16. E. Warwicke’s forland.
17. L. Lumley’s inlet.
18. A furious overfall.
19. Terre de Labrador.
20. Dorgeo.
21. I. de Arel.(?)
—ED.]]
Next in importance to the three voyages of Frobisher are the three
voyages of Captain John Davis, who has been immortalized by the
magnificent strait which bears his name, and which was discovered
on his first voyage. On this voyage he sailed from Dartmouth on the
7th of June, 1585, with two vessels,—the “Sunshine,” of fifty tons,
manned by twenty-three persons, and the “Moonshine,” of thirty-five
tons, with seventeen men. But it was not until three weeks later that
he was able to take his final departure from the Scilly Islands; and
he arrived at Dartmouth, on his return, on the 30th of September.
In this brief period he made some important discoveries, and sailed
as far north as 66° 66′, and westward farther than any one had yet
penetrated, “finding no hindrance.” He naturally concluded that he
had already discovered the desired passage, and that it was only
necessary to press forward in order to insure entire success. But he
was compelled by stress of weather to put back, and he reached England
shortly afterward. On his second voyage his little fleet was increased
by the addition of the “Mermaid,” of one hundred tons, and the “North
Star,” a pinnace of ten tons. He sailed from Dartmouth on the 7th of
May, 1586, and for a time everything promised well; but at the end of
July the crew of his largest vessel became discontented, and returned
with her to England. Meanwhile, the “Sunshine” and the pinnace had been
sent to make discoveries to the eastward of Greenland. But, in nowise
disheartened by these circumstances, Davis determined to prosecute his
enterprise in the “Moonshine.” He reached, however, not quite so far
north as in his previous voyage, and apparently about as far west, and
arrived home early in October,—“not having done so much as he did in
his first voyage,” is the judgment of one of his successors in Arctic
navigation.[194]
On his third voyage he sailed from Dartmouth, on the 19th of May,
1587, with three vessels,—the “Elizabeth,” the “Sunshine,” and a
smaller vessel, the “Helen,”—and arrived at the same port, on his
return, on the 15th of September. His course was in the track which
he had previously followed; but he added little to the knowledge he
had already gained, and having been inadequately provided for a long
voyage, was obliged to sail for home when he thought “the passage is
most probable, the execution easie.”[195]
[Illustration: FROM MOLINEAUX’S MAP, 1600.
[It is claimed that Davis, who was in England, June, 1600, to February,
1601, probably furnished the plot, and there is manifest an endeavor
in it to reconcile the old Zeno map. Davis’s discoveries are correctly
placed, but Frobisher’s are on the wrong side of the Straits. It needs
the following key:—
1. A furious overfall.
2. Warwick’s forelande.
3. E. Cumberland Inlet.
4. Estotiland.
5. M. Rawghley.
6. Saunderson’s towe.
7. C. Bedford.
8. Fretum Davis.
9. Desolation.
10. Warwick’s Forlande (_repeated_).
11. Meta incognita.
12. Mr. Forbusher’s straights.
13. Reg. E. Foreland.
14. Freyland.
15. Gronlande.
See Editorial Note F, at the end of Dr. De Costa’s chapter.—Ed.]]
[Illustration]
It is a matter for surprise, in view of the sanguine expectations of
Davis, that an interval of nearly fifteen years elapsed between his
return from his third voyage and the sailing of the next expedition.
This was sent out at the cost of the East India Company, and consisted
of two small vessels,—the “Discovery,” under the command of Captain
George Waymouth, and the “Godspeed,” under John Drew. Waymouth sailed
from the Thames on the 2d of May, 1602, under a contract which provided
that he should sail directly toward the coast of Greenland and the sea
described as Fretum Davis, and that thence he should proceed by those
seas, “or as he shall find the passadge best to lye towards the parts
or kingdom of Cataya or China, or the backe side of America, w^{th}out
geveng ouer the proceedinge on his course soe longe as he shall finde
those seas or any ṗte thereof navigable, and any possibilitie to
make way or passadge through them.”[196] In spite of these specific
directions, the voyage was not productive of any important results,
though it is probable that he sighted land to the north of Hudson’s
Strait; and Luke Fox appears to have been right when he says that
Waymouth “neither discovered nor named any thing more than Davis, nor
had any sight of Groenland, nor was so farre north; nor can I conceive
he hath added anything more to this designe. Yet these two, Davis and
he, did (I conceive), light Hudson into his straights.”[197] Waymouth
himself ascribed his failure to a mutiny which occurred in the latter
part of July, and which compelled him to return to Dartmouth, where he
arrived on the 5th of August. An inquiry into the causes of the failure
was begun shortly afterward, but no evidence has been found to show how
it terminated.
Three voyages were undertaken not long afterward by the Danes, in which
James Hall was the chief pilot; and one by the English, under the
command of John Knight, in a pinnace of forty tons, sent out by the
East India and Muscovy companies. But each of these voyages had for
its chief object the discovery of gold and silver mines, and though
they all seem to have followed in the track of Frobisher, they added
little or nothing to the knowledge of Arctic geography, and contributed
nothing toward the solution of the problem of a northwest passage.
The first of these expeditions, in which both Hall and Knight were
employed, consisted of two small ships and a pinnace, and sailed from
Copenhagen on the 2d of May, 1605. After coasting along the western
shore of Davis Strait as far north as 69°, the ships reached Elsinore
on their return early in August. The next year a fleet of four ships
and a pinnace was sent out, with Hall as pilot-major. They sailed from
Elsinore on the 29th of May, but were prevented by the ice and stormy
weather from reaching as far north as before, and after much delay they
returned to Copenhagen on the 4th of October. In 1607 Hall accompanied
a third expedition, consisting of two vessels, which was equally
unproductive of results. When they had reached no farther than Cape
Farewell, on the southern coast of Greenland, they were compelled to
return, from causes which are variously stated, but which were probably
complicated by a mutinous spirit in the crew.
In the same year with Hall’s second voyage, Knight sailed from
Gravesend, on the 18th of April. Two months afterward he made land on
the coast of Labrador; and the captain and five men went on shore to
find a convenient place for repairing their vessel. Leaving two men
with their boat, the captain and three men went to the highest part
of the island. They did not return that day, and on the following day
the state of the ice was such that it was impossible to reach them,
and they were never heard from afterward. The pinnace then went to
Newfoundland to repair; and after encountering many perils, reached
Dartmouth on the 24th of December. Hall made a fourth voyage, in
1612, in two small vessels fitted out by some merchant-adventurers in
London. In this voyage he was mortally wounded in an encounter with the
Esquimaux on the coast of Labrador. His death destroyed all hope of a
successful prosecution of the enterprise, and shortly afterward the
vessels returned to England.
Henry Hudson had already acquired a considerable reputation as a
bold and skilful navigator, and had made three noteworthy voyages of
discovery when he embarked on his voyage for northwest exploration. On
the 17th of April, 1610, he sailed from Gravesend in the “Discovery,”
a vessel of only fifty-five tons, provisioned for six months; and on
the 9th of June he arrived off Frobisher’s Strait. He then sailed
southwesterly, and entering the strait which bears his name, passed
through its entire length, naming numerous islands and headlands,
and finally, on the 3d of August, saw before him the open waters of
Hudson’s Bay. Three months were spent in examining its shores, and on
the 10th of November his vessel was frozen in. She was not released
until the 18th of June in the following year, and six days afterward
a mutiny occurred. Hudson and his son, with six of the crew who were
either sick or unfit for work, were forced into a shallop, where they
were voluntarily joined by the carpenter; and then the frail boat
was cut loose, and the mutineers set sail for home, leaving their
late master and his companions to the mercy of the waves or death
by starvation. They were never seen or heard of again; but after
encountering great perils and privations, the mutineers finally made
land in Galway Bay, on the coast of Ireland. Hudson’s own account of
the voyage terminates with his entrance into the bay discovered by
him. For the later explorations and for the tragic end of the great
navigator’s brilliant career, we are forced to trust to the narrative
of one of his men, Abacuk Pricket. If we may believe the story told by
him, he had no part in the mutiny; but no one can read his narrative
without sharing the suspicion of Fox: “Well, Pricket, I am in great
doubt of thy fidelity to Master Hudson.”[198]
Two years after Hudson sailed on his last voyage, a new expedition
was sent to the northwest under the command of Sir Thomas Button. It
consisted of two ships, the “Resolution” and the “Discovery,” and
was provisioned for eighteen months. “Concerning this voyage,” says
Luke Fox, “there cannot bee much expected from me, seing that I have
met with none of the Journalls thereof. It appeareth that they have
been concealed, for what reasons I know not.”[199] Button sailed from
England in the beginning of May, and entering Hudson’s Strait, crossed
the Bay to the southern point of Southampton Island, which he named
Carey’s Swan’s Nest. He then kept on toward the western side of the
Bay, to which he gave the significant name “Hope’s Check,” and coasting
along the shore he discovered the important river which he called Port
Nelson, and which is now known as Nelson’s River. Here he wintered,
“and kept three fires all the Winter, but lost many men, and yet was
supplied with great store of white Partridges and other Fowle,” says
Fox.[200] On the breaking up of the ice he made a thorough exploration
of the bay and of Southampton Island, and finally returned to England
in the autumn, having accomplished enough to give him a foremost rank
among Arctic navigators.
A little less than a year and a half after Button’s return, Robert
Bylot and William Baffin embarked on the first of the two voyages
commonly associated with their names.
[Illustration]
They sailed from the Scilly Islands on Good Friday, April 7, 1615, in
the “Discovery,” a ship of about fifty-five tons, in which Bylot had
already made three voyages to the northwest. Following a course already
familiar to him, they passed through Hudson’s Strait, and ascended what
is now known as Fox Channel. Here and at the western end of Hudson’s
Strait they spent about three weeks, and then sailed for home, where
they arrived in the early part of September.
[Illustration: SIR THOMAS SMITH.
Passe’s engraving is very rare. It is also reproduced by Markham, in
whose Introduction are accounts of Smith, Sir Dudley Digges, Sir John
Wolstenholme, and other eminent patrons of Arctic exploration in that
day. See Belknap’s _American Biography_, ii. 9.]
Their next voyage was one of far greater interest and importance, and
ranks among the most famous of the Arctic voyages. They sailed again
in the “Discovery,” leaving Gravesend on the 26th of March, 1616, with
a company numbering in all seventeen persons; and coasting along the
western shore of Greenland and through Davis Strait, they visited and
explored both shores of the great sea which has ever since borne the
name of Baffin’s Bay. Here they discovered and named the important
channels known as Lancaster Sound and Jones Sound, beside numerous
smaller bodies of water and numerous islands since become familiar to
Arctic voyagers. All this was accomplished in a short season, and on
the 30th of August they cast anchor at Dover on their return.
Fifteen years elapsed, during which no important attempt was made
toward the discovery of a northwest passage; but in 1631 two voyages
were undertaken, to one of which we owe the quaint, gossippy narrative
entitled _Northwest Fox, or Fox from the Northwest Passage_. Luke Fox,
its author, was a Yorkshireman, of keen sense and great perseverance,
as well as a skilful navigator. He had long been interested in
northwest explorations; and, according to his own account, he wished to
go as mate with Knight twenty-five years before. At length he succeeded
in interesting a number of London merchants and other persons in the
enterprise, and on the 5th of May, 1631, he set sail from Deptford
in the “Charles,” a pinnace of seventy tons, victualled for eighteen
months. He searched the western part of Hudson’s Bay, discovered the
strait and shore known as Sir Thomas Roe’s Welcome, sailed up Fox
Channel to a point within the Arctic Circle, and satisfied himself, by
a careful observation of the tides, of the existence of the long-sought
passage, but failed to discover it. On his return he cast anchor in
the Downs on the 31st of October, “not having lost one Man, nor Boy,
nor Soule, nor any manner of Tackling, having beene forth neere six
moneths. All glory be to God!”[201]
On the same day on which Fox began his voyage, Captain Thomas James
sailed from the Severn in a new vessel of seventy tons, named the
“Maria,” manned by twenty-two persons, and, like Fox’s vessel,
victualled for eighteen months. On his outward voyage he encountered
many perils, and on more than one occasion his vessel barely escaped
shipwreck. His explorations were confined to the waters of Hudson’s
Bay, and more particularly to its southeastern part, where he wintered
on Charlton Island. Here he built a house in which the ship’s company
lived from December until June, enduring as best they might all the
horrors of an Arctic winter on an island only a little north of the
latitude of London. On the 2d of July they again set sail, but were so
hampered by ice that their progress was very slow, and in the latter
part of August James, with the unanimous concurrence of his officers,
determined to return home. He arrived at Bristol on the 22d of October,
1632, having added almost nothing to the knowledge gained by Fox in a
third of the time.
[Illustration: A PART OF JAMES’S MAP.
[This is the southwest corner of a folding map, 16 × 12 inches,
entitled “The Platt of Sayling for the discoverye of a passage into
the South Sea, 1631,1632,” which belongs to James’s _Strange and
Dangerous Voyage_, London, 1633. Mr. Charles Deane has two copies, both
with photographic fac-similes of the map made from the copy now in
the Barlow Library, New York. The Harvard College copy is defective.
The map has a portrait of James, “ætatis suæ, 40.” (Cf. Sabin’s
_Dictionary_, ix. 35,711; _Carter-Brown Catalogue_, ii. no. 400.
Quaritch priced it in 1872, £36.) The narrative was reprinted in 1740,
and is in the Collections of Churchill and Harris.—ED.]]
Both voyages were substantially failures, and their want of success
nearly put an end to northwestern explorations. It was more than a
hundred years before the matter was again taken up in any deliberate
and efficient manner. But in the long list of Arctic navigators there
are no greater names than those of Frobisher, Davis, Hudson, and
Baffin. With means utterly disproportioned, as it now seems, to the
task which they undertook, these men accomplished results which have
called forth the admiration of more than one of their successors. They
did not find the new and more direct way to Cathay which they sought
for; but they dispelled many geographical illusions, and every fresh
advance in our knowledge of the Arctic regions has only confirmed the
accuracy of their statements. The story of these later explorations
belongs to another part of this History; and we shall there see an
energy and perseverance and an heroic endurance of hardship for the
solution of great geographical problems not unworthy of the men whose
voyages have been here narrated.
CRITICAL ESSAY ON THE SOURCES OF INFORMATION.
A COMPLETE bibliography of the northwest explorations is apart from
our present purpose.[202] The principal works used in the preparation
of the preceding narrative were almost all of them written by the men
who were the chief actors in the scenes and incidents described, or are
based on the original journals of those men. Their general accuracy and
trustworthiness have never been challenged, and with some unimportant
exceptions the statements of the early navigators have been confirmed
by their successors. The men who first encountered the perils of
those unknown seas were men of plain, straightforward character, who
told in simple and unpretentious words what they saw and did. Some
rectifications of their opinions and descriptions have, it is true,
become necessary; in part through the imperfections of the early
astronomical instruments, and in part through the difficulty, often
very great, of deciding what was land and what water, even from the
most careful observation. As a general rule, the early latitudes are
given too high from the first of these causes; but the longitudes are
substantially correct.
Of the works which are mainly compilations, the undisputed pre-eminence
belongs to Hakluyt’s _Voyages_ and Purchas’s _Pilgrimes_. Hakluyt
was an enthusiast with regard to western discoveries, and he spared
neither time nor labor to obtain trustworthy information with regard
to the voyages in which he took so deep an interest. His narratives
of the early voyages, so far as we have the means of verifying them,
follow with almost entire accuracy the original documents, though
in a few instances he has abbreviated his originals, apparently
from motives of economy and the want of space. In these instances,
however, the republication of the narratives by the Hakluyt Society,
with the learned annotations of their thoroughly competent editors,
places before the reader an exact copy of the originals. Purchas is
an authority of less importance than Hakluyt, but a similar remark
will apply to his accounts of the early voyages, though they are
more abridged than Hakluyt’s. Luke Fox prefixed to his quaint and
fascinating narrative of his own voyage an account of what had been
done by his predecessors, and this must be classed among the best
authorities. Of the later compilations the _Chronological History_[203]
of Sir John Barrow, so far as it covers the earlier period, should
not be overlooked by any one who wishes for a full summary of what was
accomplished. He was scarcely less of an enthusiast than was Hakluyt;
and his statements of fact are apparently indisputable. But he was a
man of strong and often of unreasonable prejudices, and his opinions,
particularly regarding events near his own time, cannot always be
accepted without a careful investigation of their grounds. The
_Narratives_,[204] edited by Mr. Rundall for the Hakluyt Society, must
also be classed with the compilations useful in this study.
[Illustration: BAFFIN’S BAY—CAPT LUKE FOX 1635.]
As an attempt to find a practicable passage between the Atlantic and
the Pacific, either through or around North America, every voyage
early and late was a failure. The theories in accordance with which
northwestern explorations were first undertaken were unsound, and
the objects by which they were inspired found realization long ago
in quite other ways. But not the less did those theories and those
objects animate men with a zeal and self-sacrifice worthy of the
Crusades, and produce results of great importance. No easier route to
China and Japan was discovered to enrich the fortunate adventurers; no
valuable territories were added to the realm of England; and it was an
utterly barren sovereignty which Frobisher and his successors claimed.
But for the disappointment of these expectations there was an ample
compensation in the whaling grounds to which they pointed the way,
and which have proved the fruitful source of large accessions to the
wealth of nations;[205] and it was something to learn, almost from the
first, that the gold mines from which so much was expected were only a
delusion and a snare.
We subjoin a specific mention of some of the more important separate
sources. For Frobisher the student may refer to Admiral Collinson’s
excellent gathering for the Hakluyt Society, as embodying the earliest
monographic literature upon the Northwest search.[206] Of John
Davis of Sandridge, whose exploits we are concerned with, there has
sometimes been confusion with a namesake and contemporary, John Davis
of Limehouse, and Mr. Froude has confounded them in his _Forgotten
Worthies_; but a note in the Hakluyt Society’s edition of _Davis’s
Voyages_, p. lxxviii, makes clear the distinction, and is not the least
of the excellences of that book, which contains the best grouping of
all that is to be learned of Davis.[207]
Referring to the general collections, for the intervening voyages we
come to Hudson’s explorations, and must still trust chiefly to the work
of the Hakluyt Society,[208] to which must also be credited the best
summary of the voyages conducted by Baffin.[209]
For Fox’s quaint and somewhat capriciously rambling narrative, the
present reader may possibly chance upon an original copy,[210] but
he can follow it at all events in modern collections. The author
accompanied it with a circumpolar map, which is only to be found,
according to Markham, in one or two copies; and a fac-simile of
Markham’s excerpt of the parts interesting in our inquiry is herewith
given.
[Illustration]
EDITORIAL NOTES.
=A.= THE ZENO INFLUENCE ON EARLY CARTOGRAPHY.—Frobisher’s reference to
Friesland indicates the influence which the Zeno map, then for hardly a
score of years before the geographers of Europe, was having upon their
notions regarding the North Atlantic.
[Illustration: THE ZENO CHART, _circa_ 1400.]
Of this map and its curious history a full account is given in Vol.
I. of the present History. It had been brought to light in Italy in
1558, and Frobisher is said to have taken it with him on his voyage.
Its errors in latitude deceived that navigator. When he fell in
with the Greenland shore, in 61°, he supposed himself to be at the
southern limit of Friesland, that being Zeno’s latitude for that point
(the southern point of his Greenland being in 66°); and thus that
unaccountable insular region of the Zeno chart was put anew into the
maps of the North Atlantic, and remained there for some time. Again,
when Davis fell in with land in 61°, he thought it neither Friesland
nor Zeno’s Greenland, but a new country, which he had found and which
he named “Desolation;” and so it appears in Molineaux’s map and globe,
and in Hudson’s map (given in fac-simile in Asher’s _Henry Hudson_),
as an island south of Greenland, with a misplaced Frobisher’s Straits
(still misplaced as late as the time of Hondius) separating it from
Greenland. Our Zeno chart must be interpreted by the following key:—
1. Engronelant (Greenland).
2. Grolandia.
3. Islanda (Iceland).
4. Norvegia (Norway).
5. Estland (Shetland Islands?).
6. Icaria.
7. Frisland (Faroe Islands?).
8. Estotiland (Labrador?).
9. Drogeo (Newfoundland or New England?).
10. Podalida.
11. Scocia (Scotland).
12. Mare et terre incognite.
Its influence can be further traced, twenty years later, in the map of
the world which Wolfe, in 1598, added to his English translation of
Linschoten. We annex a sketch-map of the Arctic portion, which needs to
be interpreted by the key below the cut.
[Illustration: FROM WOLFE’S LINSCHOTEN, 1598.
1. Terra Septemtrionalis.
2. Grocland.
3. Groenland.
4. Island (Iceland).
5. Friesland.
6. Drogeo.
7. Estotiland.
8. R. Nevado.
9. C. Marco.
10. Gol di S. Lorenzo.
11. Saguenay flu.
12. Canada.
13. Nova Francia.
14. Norōbega.
15. Terra de Baccalaos.
16. Do Bretan.
17. Juan.
18. R. de Tomēta.
19. S. Brādam.
20. Brasil.]
Considering the doubt attached to the Zeno chart, it would seem that
the earliest undoubted delineation of American parts of the Arctic
land is the representation of Greenland which appears in the Ptolemy
of 1482. This position of Greenland was reproduced, about ten years
before Frobisher’s voyage, in Olaus Magnus’s Latin _Historia_, Basil,
1567, who puts on the peninsula this legend: “Hic habitant Pygmei
vulgo Screlinger dicti.” There had been an earlier Latin edition of
the _Historia_ at Rome in 1555, and one in Italian at Venice in 1565:
there was no English edition till 1658. (_Carter-Brown Catalogue_, p.
269.) Ziegler’s _Schondia_ had in Frobisher’s time been for forty years
or more a source of information regarding the most northern regions.
(_Carter-Brown Catalogue_, pp. 103, 120, for editions of 1532 and 1536.)
The cartographical ideas of the North from the earliest conceptions
may be traced in the following maps, which for this purpose may be
deemed typical: In 1510-12, in the Lenox Globe, which is drawn in Dr.
De Costa’s chapter; the map in Sylvanus’s _Ptolemy_, 1511, represents
Greenland as protruding from the northwest of Europe; the globe of
Orontius Fine, 1531, is resolvable into a similar condition, as shown
on page 11 of the present volume; Mercator’s great map of 1569,
blundering, mixes the Zeno geography with the later developments;
Gilbert’s map, 1576, gives an insular Greenland of a reversed trend
of coast; the Lok map of 1582 may be seen on page 40, and the
Hakluyt-Martyr map on page 42. The map of America showing the Arctic
Sea which appears in Boterus’s _Welt-beschreibung_, 1596, and Acosta’s
map (1598) of Greenland and adjacent parts, can be compared with
Wolfe’s, in Linschoten, already given in this note. Finally, we may
take the Hondius maps of 1611 and 1619, in which Hondius places at 80°
north this legend: “Glacis ab Hudsono detecta.”
=B.= FROBISHER’S VOYAGES.—George Beste’s _True Discourse of Discoverie
by the North Weast_, 1578, covers the three voyages, and contains two
maps,—one a mappemonde, the most significant since Mercator’s, and of
which in part a fac-simile is here given. The other is of Frobisher’s
Straits alone. Kohl, _Catalogue of Maps mentioned in Hakluyt_, p. 18,
traces the authorship of these charts to James Beare, Frobisher’s
principal surveyor. Compare it with Lok’s map, page 40, of the present
volume.
[Illustration: PART OF MAP IN BESTE’S “FROBISHER,” 1578.]
Beste’s book is very rare, and copies are in the Lenox and Carter-Brown
libraries. It is reprinted by Hakluyt.
Beste’s general account may be supplemented by these special
narratives:—
_First Voyage._ A State-paper given by Collinson, “apparently by M.
Lok.” The narrative by Christopher Hall, the master, in Hakluyt. See an
examination of its results in _Contemporary Review_ (1873), xxi. 529,
or _Eclectic Review_, iii. 243.
_Second Voyage._ Dionysius Settle’s account, published separately in
1577. _Carter-Brown Catalogue_, no. 206, with fac-simile of title.
It was reprinted by Mr. Carter-Brown (50 copies) in 1869. See notice
by J. R. Bartlett in _N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg._, 1869, p. 363.
This narrative is given in Hakluyt, vol. iii.; Pinkerton, vol. xii.;
Brydge’s _Restituta_, 1814, vol. ii. Chippin’s French version of
Settle, _La Navigation du Cap. Martin Forbisher_, was printed in 1578.
It is in the Lenox and Carter-Brown libraries. It has reappeared at
various dates, 1720, 1731, etc. From this French version of Settle was
made the Latin, _De Martini Forbisseri Angli navigatione in regiones
occidentis et septentrionis, narratio historica ex Gallico sermone
in Latinum translata per D. Joan Tho. Freigium_, Norbergæ, 1580, 44
leaves. This is also in the Lenox, Carter-Brown, and Sparks (Cornell
University) Collections. Cf. _Sunderland Catalogue_, ii. 4,650. Its
value is from $10 to $30. It was reprinted with notes at Hamburg
in 1675. Stevens, _Hist. Coll._, i. 33. Brinley, no. 28. Sabin,
_Dictionary_, vii. 25,994. This edition is usually priced at $12 or
$15. There are also German (1580, 1679, etc.) and Dutch (1599, 1663,
1678; in Aa’s Collection, 1706) editions. In the 1580 German edition is
a woodcut of the natives brought to England. _Huth Catalogue_, ii. 556.
_Third Voyage._ Thomas Ellis’s narrative, given by Hakluyt and
Collinson. Edward Sellman’s account is also given by Collinson.
Collinson’s life of Frobisher, prefixed to his volume, is brief; his
authorities, other than those in the body of his book, are Fuller’s
_Worthies of England_, and such modern treatises as Campbell’s _Lives
of the Admirals_, Barrow’s _Naval Worthies_, Muller’s _History of
Doncaster_, etc. S. G. Drake furnished a memoir, with a good engraving
of the usual portrait, in _N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg._, vol. iii.;
and there is a _Life_ by F. Jones, London, 1878. Biddle, in his
_Cabot_, chap. 12, epitomizes the voyages, and they can be cursorily
followed in Fox Bourne’s _English Seamen_, and Payne’s _Elizabethan
Seamen_. Commander Becher, in his paper in the _Journal_ of the Royal
Geographical Society, xii. 1, gives a useful map of the Straits, a part
of which is reproduced in the accompanying cut. In the same volume of
the _Journal_ its editor enumerates the various manuscript sources,
most of which have been printed, and have been referred to above.
[Illustration: FROBISHER’S STRAIT.]
=C.= HUDSON’S VOYAGES.—The sources of our information on this
navigator’s four voyages to the North are these:—
_First voyage_ in 1607, under the auspices of the Muscovy Company, to
the Northeast. A log-book, in which Hudson may have had a hand, or
to which he may have supplied facts; and a few fragments of his own
journal. Purchas’s _Pilgrims_, vol. iii.; Asher’s _Henry Hudson_, pp. i
and 145.
_Second voyage_, 1608, under the auspices of the Muscovy Company, to
the Northeast. A log-book by Hudson himself. Purchas’s _Pilgrims_, iii.
574; _N. Y. Hist. Soc. Coll._, i. 81; Asher’s _Hudson_, p. 23.
A map by Hondius illustrating the first and second voyage, and given by
Asher in fac-simile, was originally published in Pontanus’s _History of
Amsterdam_, Latin ed. 1611, and Dutch ed. 1614.
_Third voyage_, 1609, under the auspices of the East India Company, to
the Northeast, where, foiled by the ice, he turned and sailed to make
explorations between the coast of Maine and Delaware Bay. The journal
of Juet, his companion. Purchas’s _Pilgrims_, vol. iii.; Asher’s
_Hudson_, p. 45. See further in Mr. Fernow’s chapter in Vol. IV. of
this History.
_Fourth voyage_, 1610, to the Northwest, discovering Hudson’s Strait
and Hudson’s Bay. Purchas, _Pilgrims_, vol. iii., got his account
from Sir Dudley Digges. He also gives an abstract of Hudson’s journal
(Asher, p. 93); a discourse by Pricket, one of the crew, whom Purchas
discredits, which is largely an apology for the mutiny which set Hudson
adrift in an open boat in the bay now bearing his name (Asher, p. 98);
a letter from Iceland, May 30, 1610, perhaps by Hudson himself, and an
account of Juet’s trial (Asher, p. 136). Purchas added some new facts
in his _Pilgrimage_, reprinted in Asher, p. 139.
H. Gerritsz seized the opportunity, occasioned by the interest in
Hudson’s voyage and his fate, to promulgate his views of the greater
chance of finding a northwest passage to India, rather than a northeast
one; and in the little collection of tracts edited by him, produced
first in the Dutch edition of 1612, he gives but a very brief narrative
of Hudson’s voyage, which is printed on the reverse of the map showing
his discoveries,—the maps, which he gives, both of the world and of
the north parts of America being the chief arguments of his book,
the latter map being also reproduced by Asher. The original Dutch
edition is extremely scarce, but four or five copies being known. A
reproduction of it in 1878 by Kroon, through the photo-lithographic
process, consists of 200 copies, and contains also, under the general
title of _Detectio freti Hudsoni_, a reproduction of the Latin edition
of 1613, with an English version by F. J. Millard, and an Introductory
Essay on the origin and design of this collection, which, besides
Gerritsz’s tract, includes others by Massa and De Quir. Sabin’s
_Dictionary_, viii. 33,489; Asher’s _Hudson_, p. 267.
In the enlarged Latin translation, ordinarily quoted as the _Detectio
freti Hudsoni_ of 1612, Gerritsz inverted the order of the several
tracts, giving more prominence to Hudson, as May’s expedition to the
northeast had in the mean time returned unsuccessful. _Huth Catalogue_,
ii. 744, shows better than _Brunet_, iii. 358, the difference between
this 1612 and the 1613 editions. H. C. Murphy’s _Henry Hudson in
Holland_. The _Carter-Brown Catalogue_, ii. 131, gives this little
quarto the following title: _Descriptio ac delineatio Geographica
detectionis freti sive, Transitus ad Occasum, suprà terras Americanas
in Chinam atq: Iaponem ducturi, Recens investigati ab M. Henrico
Hudsono Anglo_, etc., and cites the world in two hemispheres as among
the three maps which it contains. A copy in Mr. Henry C. Murphy’s
collection has a second title, which shows that Vitellus and not
Gerritsz made the Latin translation. This other title reads: _Exemplar
Libelli ... super Detectione quintæ Orbis terrarum partiscui Australiæ
Incognitæ nomen est: item Relatio super Freto per M. Hudsonum Anglum
quæsito, ac in parte dedecte supra Provincias Terræ Novæ, novæque
Hispaniæ, Chinam, et Cathaiam versus ducturo ... Latine versa ab
R. Vitellio, Amstelodami ex officina Hessilii Gerardi. Anno 1612_.
Speaking of this little tract and the share which Gerritsz had in it,
Asher, in his _Henry Hudson the Navigator_, says, “Around it grew in a
very remarkable manner the most interesting of the many collections of
voyages and travels printed in the early part of the sixteenth century.”
In a second Latin edition, 1613, Gerritsz again remodelled his
additions, and gave a further account of May’s voyage. _Huth
Catalogue_, ii. 744; _Carter-Brown Catalogue_, ii. 152; Tièle, _Mémoire
bibliographique_, 1867, no. 153; Muller’s _Essai d’une bibliographie
néerlando-russe_, 1859, p. 71.
To some copies of this second edition Gerritsz added a short appendix
of two leaves, Sig. G, which is reprinted in the Kroon reproduction,
and serves to make some bibliographers reckon a third Latin edition.
There are in the Lenox Library six copies of the original, representing
the different varieties of the Dutch and Latin texts. One of the
copies in Harvard College Library has these two additional leaves,
which are also in the copy in the Carter-Brown Library, whose
_Catalogue_, ii. 152, says that the fac-simile reprint by Muller must
have been made from a copy with different cuts and ornamental capitals
and tail-pieces, as these are totally different from those of the
Carter-Brown copy. The map of the world was repeated in this edition.
The original Dutch text has been reprinted in several later collections
of voyages, published in Holland. The English translation in Purchas is
incomplete and incorrect; and that of Millard, as well as the English
generally in the Kroon reprint, could have been much bettered by a
competent native proof-reader.
German versions appeared in De Bry and in Megiser’s _Septentrio
novantiquus_, p. 438, both in 1613; and in 1614 in Hulsius, part xii.
There is a French translation in the _Receuil d’Arrests_ of 1720.