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Rh into a company, of which he was chosen the governor, for the prosecution of maritime discovery, with a particular view to the anxiously desired passage by the northern seas to China and the other countries of the East. Three vessels were forthwith sent out, under the command of Sir Hugh Willoughby, to whom Cabot gave a paper of remarkably judicious instructions, and King Edward letters addressed to all kings and princes, requesting their friendship. One of the ships is stated to have been sheathed with thin plates of lead, a contrivance which is spoken of as a new invention. Willoughby, after having reached the 72nd degree of north latitude, took refuge for the winter in a harbour in Russian Lapland, where he and the crews of two of his ships, seventy in number, were frozen to death; but the third ship, commanded by Richard Chancellor, found its way into the White Sea, then entirely unknown to the English, though a correct description of it had been given to Alfred by Ohthere more than 600 years before. Chancellor landed near Archangel, from whence he travelled on sledges to Moscow, and there obtained from the Czar, John Basilowitz, letters for King Edward, and valuable trading privileges for his employers. This was the origin of the English Russia Company, which was incorporated the next year by a charter from Queen Mary, and soon became a very flourishing and important association. Its affairs appear to have continued, at least for three or four years, to be superintended by Cabot, its originator, of whom, however, the last thing recorded is, that in 1557 the half of his pension was given to another person, to whom, at the same time, all his maps and papers were delivered over, lie probably died within a year or two after this date.

Cabot's first voyage, in 1497, may possibly have given rise to another branch of trade, which was now carried on to some extent—the cod-fishery of Newfoundland. In 1517 there are said to have been about fifty Spanish, French, and Portuguese ships engaged in this fishery; but the first attempt of the English to obtain a share of the trade was not made till 1536. From an act of