Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/333

Rh really did was to establish the fact that there were two or more wide openings leading to the westward, between latitudes 60 and 63, on the American coast. )avis. John Davis, who made the next attempt to discover a north-west passage, was one of the most scientific seamen of that age. He made three voyages in three successive years, aided and fitted out by William Sanderson and other merchants. Sailing from Dartmouth on the 7th June 1585, he was the first to visit the west coast of Greenland subsequent to the abandonment of the Norse colonies. He called it &quot;The Land of Desolation.&quot; He discovered Gilbert s Sound in 64 10 (where now stands the Danish settlement of Godthaab) and then, crossing the strait which bears his name, he traced a portion of its western shore. In the second voyage Davis noted what he calls &quot;a furious overfall,&quot; which was the tide flowing into Hudson Strait; and in his third voyage, in 1587, he advanced far up his own strait, and reached a lofty granite island in 72 41 N. which he named Sanderson s Hope. He considered that there was good hope of advancing farther, and reported &quot; no ice towards the north, but a great sea, free, large, very salt and blue, and of an unsearchable depth.&quot; The results of his discoveries are shown on the Molyneux globe which is now in the library of the Middle Temple; but he found it impossible to reconcile his work with that of Frobisher, and with the Zeni map. In 1595 Davis published a tract entitled The World s llydrographical Description, in which he ably states the arguments in favour of the discovery of a north west passage. The Dutch also saw the importance of a northern route to China and India, especially as the routes by the Cape of Good Hope and Magellan s Strait were jealously guarded by Spaniards and Portuguese. Their plan was to proceed by the north-east along the coast of Asia. As early as 1578 Dutch merchants had opened a trade with Kola and Archangel, but it was Peter Plancius, the learned cosmo- grapher of Amsterdam, who conceived the idea of dis covering a north-east passage. In 1594 the Amsterdam merchants fitted out a vessel of 100 tons, under the corn -rents, mand of Willem Barents. The coast of Nova Zembla was sighted on the 4th July, and from that date until the 3rd of August Barents continued perseveringly to seek a way through the ice-floes, and discovered the whole western coast as far as Cape Nassau and the Orange Islands at the north-west extremity. The second voyage in which Barents was engaged merely made an unsuccessful attempt to enter the Kara Sea. The third was more important. Two vessels sailed from Amsterdam on May 13, 1596, under the command of Jacob van Heemskerck and Corneliszoon Rijp. Barents accompanied Heemskerck as pilot, and Gerrit de Veer, the historian of the voyage, was on board as mate. The masses of ice in the straits leading to the Sea of Kara, and the impenetrable nature of the pack near Nova Zembla, had suggested the advisability of avoiding the land and, by keeping a northerly course, of seeking a passage in the open sea. They sailed northwards and on 9th June discovered Bear Island. Continuing on the same course they sighted the north-western extreme of Spitz- bergen, soon afterwards being stopped by the polar pack ice. This important discovery was named &quot; Nieue Land,&quot; and was believed to be a part of Greenland. Arriving at Bear Island. again on 1st July, Rijp parted company, while Heemskerck and Barents proceeded eastward, intending to pass round the northern extreme of Nova Zembla. On the 26th August they reached Ice Haven, after rounding the northern extremity of the land. Here they wintered in a house built out of driftwood and planks from the wrecked vessel. In the spring they made their way in boats to the Lapland coast; but Barents died during the voyage. This was the first time that an arctic winter was successfully faced. The voyages of Barents stand in the first rank among the polar enterprises of the 16th century. They led directly to the flourishing whale and seal fisheries which long enriched the Netherlands. The English enterprises were continued by the Muscovy Company, and by associations of patriotic merchants of London; and even the East India Company sent an expedition under Captain Waymouth in 1602 to seek for a passage by the opening seen by Davis, but it had no success. The best servant of the Muscovy Company in the work of polar discovery was Henry Hudson. His first voyage was undertaken in 1607, when he discovered the most northern known point of the east coast of Greenland in 73 N. named &quot; Hold with Hope,&quot; and examined the edge of the ice between Greenland and Spitzbergen, reaching a latitude of 80 23 N. On his way home he discovered the island now called Jan Mayen, which he named &quot; Hudson s Tutches.&quot; In his second expedition, during the season of 1608, Hudson examined the edge of the ice be tween Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla. In his third voyage he was employed by the Dutch East India Company, and he explored the coasts of North America, discovering the Hudson river. In 1610 he discovered Hudson s Strait, and the great bay which bears and immortalizes his name (see HUDSON, vol. xii. p. 332). The voyages of Hudson led immediately to the Spitz bergen whale fishery. From 1609 to 1612 Jonas Poole made four voyages for the prosecution of this lucrative business, and he was followed by Fotherby, Baffin, Joseph, and Edge. These bold seamen, while in the pursuit of whales, added considerably to the knowledge of the archi pelago of islands known under the name of Spitzbergen, and in 1617 Captain Edge discovered a large island to the eastward, which he named Wyche s Land. At about the same period the kings of Denmark began to send expeditions for the rediscovery of the lost Green land colony. In 1605 Christian IV. sent out three ships, under the Englishmen Cunningham and Hall, and a Dane named Lindenov, which reached the western coast of Greenland and had much intercourse with the Eskimo. Other expeditions followed in 16067. Meanwhile the merchant adventurers of London con tinued to push forward the western discovery. Sir Thomas Button, in command of two ships, the &quot; Resolution &quot; and &quot;Discovery,&quot; sailed from England in May 1612. He entered Hudson s Bay, crossed to its western shore, and wintered at the mouth of a river in 57 10 N. which was named Nelson s river after the master of the ship, who died and was buried there. Next year Button explored the shore of Southampton Island as far as 65 N., and returned home in the autumn of 1613. An expedition under Captain Gibbons, despatched in 1614, was a miser able failure; but in 1615 Robert Bylot as master and William Baffin as pilot and navigator in the &quot;Discovery&quot; examined the coasts of Hudson s Strait, and Baffin, who was the equal of Davis as a scientific seaman, made many valuable observations. In 1616 Bylot and Baffin again set out in the &quot; Discovery.&quot; Sailing up Davis Strait they passed that navigator s farthest point at Sanderson s Hope, and sailed round the great channel with smaller channels leading from it which has been known ever since as Baffin s Bay. Baffin named the most northern opening- Smith Sound, after the first governor of the East India Company, and the munificent promoter of the voyage, Sir Thomas Smith. Wolstenholme Sound, Cape Dudley Digges, Hakluyt Island, Lancaster Sound, Jones Sound, and the Gary Islands were named after other promoters and friends of the voyage. The fame of Baffin mainly rests upon the discovery of the great channel extending Way- mouth. Hudson. Spitz bergen whale fishery. Danish voyages. Button. Baffin.