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THE ENGLISH EXPLORERS.

ARCTIC EXPLORATIONS.

'The only thing in the world that is left yet undone, whereby a notable mind might be made famous and fortunate.'-FROBISHER.

THE earliest Arctic Explorers | was made commander of the on record are said to have been fleet by Zichmi, their earl. He the hardy Norsemen, who visited visited Greenland and Iceland, the coasts of Greenland, New- describing the volcano and foundland, and several parts of boiling spring in the latter. His the American coasts, in the brother succeeded him at his ninth and tenth centuries. A death, and on his voyage of colony is said to have settled discovery to the westward he in Iceland, and in the district discovered Newfoundland and between Boston and New York, the coast of America, and found about the latter period. Some the remains of the Norman relics of their existence, in the colonies. England was then shape of standing stones carved beginning to be distinguished in with Runic inscriptions, were the school of brave and intrepid discovered in the vicinity of mariners, when John Cabot, a Baffin's Bay in 1824. Their Venetian, arrived and settled intercourse with Europe is sup-in Bristol in the reign of Henry posed to have closed about 1406, VII. A patent was granted him owing to extraordinary accumu- on March 5th, 1496, by this lations of ice on their coasts. king, to go in search of unknown Towards the end of the four-lands, and to conquer and settle teenth century the Zeni, two them. Of Sebastian, one of Venetian navigators, voyaged Cabot's three sons, we alone to the north and brought home know anything with certainty. a record of their discoveries. He is said to have landed at Sailing through the Straits of Labrador eighteen months beGibraltar, Nicolo Zeni arrived fore Columbus saw the mainat the Faroe Isles in 1380, and | land of tropical America. He

B

Jackman and his crew perished,
Pet returned home in safety.

The endeavour to find a northwest passage to the eastern world, next began to engage the mind of Martin Frobisher, a mariner of great experience and ability. He said, 'It was the only thing of the world that was left yet undone whereby a notable mind might be made famous and fortunate.' In 1576, by the patronage of Dudley, Earl of Warwick, he was enabled to fit out two small vessels for the voyage. On the 11th of July he sighted the southern coast of Greenland, but was compelled by the floating ice to make for Labrador. Having discovered the entrance to Hudson's Strait, and explored that still known as Frobisher's, and one of the entrances to Hudson's Bay, he returned to England, having failed to get farther westward. He brought with him an Esquimaux; terming the whole race, whom they had at first mistaken for porpoises or strange fish, 'strange infideles, whose like was never seen, read, nor heard of before.'

thought of a voyage to the Pole, | and sailed up to 67° of north latitude. Under the presence and influence of Sebastian Cabot, an expedition was undertaken in 1553, for the discovery of a north-east passage to Cathay. Sir Hugh Willoughby was appointed captain-general of the three ships set apart for this expedition. The result of this voyage was most disastrous, as the brave captain and his crew miserably perished from the effects of cold and hunger on a barren and uninhabited part of the eastern coast of Lapland. The ships and dead bodies of those who perished were discovered in the following year by some fishermen. Chancelor, in the Edward Bonaventura, with Stephen Burrough, the celebrated navigator, had better fortune, reaching Wardhuys in Norway, and afterwards journeying to the Russian Court at Moscow, where the then Czar of Russia sanctioned the trade between the two countries. We have not space here to give the details of Russian exploration, but to them is assigned the discovery of the shores of the Polar 'He arrived on the 2d of OcOcean, from Behring's Straits to tober, "highly commended of Novaya Zemlya. Stephen Bur- all men for his great and notable rough, with a view of sailing attempt, but specially famous round the coast of Asia, went out for the great hope he brought in the Speedthrift in 1556, and of the passage to Cathaia." discovered the south coast of One of his seamen chanced to Nova Zembla across the inter- bring home with him a stone, vening channel, when ice and as a memorial of his voyage to easterly winds prevented further those distant countries, reportprogress. Pet and Jackman ing that it contained a conmade a like attempt in 1580. | siderable quantity of gold.

Thus the hope of finding gold 'Success seems to have debecame the incentive to distant serted Frobisher after his first voyages and geographical re-voyage, which alone indeed had searches. The Queen now openly favoured the enterprise; and Frobisher again departed, in May 1577, with three ships, one of which was equipped by her Majesty. He sagaciously observed, that the ice which encumbers the northern seas must be formed in the sounds, or inland near the pole, and that the main sea never freezes. He steered for the strait where his preceding voyage had terminated, and sought the spot where the supposed gold ore had been picked up, but could not find on the whole island "a piece so big as a walnut." On the neighbouring islands, however, the ore was found in large quantities. In their examination of Frobisher's Strait, they were unable to establish a pacific intercourse with the natives. Two women were seized; of whom one, being old and ugly, was thought to be a devil or a witch, and was consequently dismissed. As gold, and not discovery, was the avowed object of this voyage, our adventurers occupied themselves in providing a cargo, and actually got on board almost 200 tons of the glittering mineral which they believed to be ore. When the lading was completed, they set sail homewards; and though the ships were dispersed by violent storms, they all arrived safely in different ports of England.'

discovery for its object. When the sanguine expectations to which he had given birth were disappointed, his voyages were looked upon as a total failure; and he appears himself for a time to have fallen into neglect. But in 1585 he served with Sir Francis Drake in the West Indies; three years later he commanded one of the largest ships of the fleet which defeated the Spanish armada; and his gallant conduct on that trying occasion procured him the honour of knighthood.'

'Frobisher's zeal in the pursuit of north-western discoveries is supposed to have been fostered by the writings of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, a gentleman of brilliant talents and romantic temper. When we contemplate the early discoveries of the Spaniards and Portuguese, we see needy adventurers, and men of desperate character and fortune pursuing gain or licentiousness with violence and bloodshed. But the English navigators who, in the reign of Elizabeth, sought to extend our knowledge of the globe, were men of a different stamp, and driven forward by motives of a more honourable nature. They undertook the most difficult navigations through seas perpetually agitated by storms and encumbered with ice, in vessels of the most frail construction and of small burthen; they e

countered all the difficulties | hand of any laudable and and distresses of a rigorous climate, and, in most cases, with a very distant or with no prospect of ultimate pecuniary advantage. Sir Humphrey Gilbert was one of those gallant spirits, who engaged in the career of discovery chiefly from the love of fame and thirst of achievement.

'In demonstration of the existence of a north-west passage, he published a treatise in 1576, entitled "A Discourse of a Discoverie for a new passage to Cataia."

Much of Sir Humphrey's reasoning in this famous treatise is unsound, and he frequently displays that childlike credulity which was so marked a feature of the character of the Elizabethan heroes; but, on the whole, his views are those of a statesman; and in singularly perspicuous language he expresses philosophical ideas of the loftiest order, which, in our own day, have been espoused and illustrated by our greatest minds. The concluding words are of a very noble spirit. As we read them, we feel they could only have been penned by a man of chivalrous nature and high aspirations; and when we remember his sorrowful end, we can hardly divest ourselves of the feeling that they were in some measure prophetic :

"Hereafter," he says, "I desire the reader never to mislike with me for the taking in

honest enterprise; for if through pleasure or idleness we purchase slaves, the pleasure vanisheth, but the shame remaineth for ever. And therefore, give me leave, without offence, always to live and die in this mind, that he is not worthy to live at all, that, for fear, or danger of death, shunneth his country's service and his own honour; seeing death is inevitable, and the fame of virtue immortal. Wherefore, in this behalf, mutare vel timero sperno (I scorn either to change or fear)."

'In 1578 he obtained a patent authorizing him to undertake western discoveries, and to possess lands unsettled by Christian princes or their subjects. The grant in the patent was made perpetual, but was at the same time declared void unless acted upon within six years. In compliance with this condition Sir Humphrey prepared, in 1583, to take possession of the northern parts of America and Newfoundland. In the same year Queen Elizabeth conferred on his younger brother, Adrian Gilbert, the privilege of making discoveries of a passage to China and the Moluccas, by the north-westward, north-eastward, or northward; directing the company, of which he was the head, to be incorporated by the name of "The colleagues of the fellowship for the discovery of the north-west passage."

The fleet of Sir Humphrey consisted of five ships, of dif

tons, in which were embarked about 260 men, including shipwrights, masons, smiths, and carpenters, besides "mineral men and refiners ;" and for the amusement of the crew, "and allurement of the savages, they were provided of music in good variety, not omitting the least toyes, as morrice dancers, hobby | horses, and Maylike conceits, to delight the savage people, whom they intended to win by all fair means possible." This little fleet reached Newfoundland on the 30th of July. It is noticed, that at this early period, "the Portugals and French chiefly have a notable trade of fishing on the Newfoundland bank, where there are sometimes more than a hundred sail of ships."

ferent burthens, from 10 to 200 | only twelve escaped. Among those who perished were the historian and the mineralogist of the expedition, a circumstance which preyed upon the mind of Sir Humphrey, whose ardent temper fondly cherished the hope of fame and of inestimable riches. He now determined to return to England, but as his little frigate, as she is called, appeared wholly unfit to proceed on such a voyage, he was entreated not to venture in her, but to take his passage in the Golden Hinde. To these solicitations the gallant knight replied, “I will not forsake my little company going homeward, with whom I have passed so many storms and perils." When the two vessels had passed the Azores, Sir Humphrey's frigate was observed to be nearly overwhelmed by a great sea: she recovered, however, the stroke of the waves; and immediately afterwards the general was observed, by those in the Hinde, sitting abaft with a book in his hand, and calling out, "Courage, my lads! we are as near heaven by sea as by land." The same night this little bark, and all within her, were swallowed up in the sea, and never more heard of. Such was the unfortunate end of the brave Sir Humphrey Gilbert, who may be regarded as the father of the western colonization, and who was one of the chief ornaments of the most chivalrous age of English history.'

'On entering St. John's, possession was taken in the Queen's name of the harbour and 200 leagues every way; parcels of land were granted out; but the attention of the general was chiefly directed to the discovery of the precious metals.

'The colony being thus apparently established, Sir Humphrey Gilbert embarked in his small frigate, the Squirrel, which was, in fact, a miserable bark of ten tons; and, taking with him two other ships, proceeded on a voyage of discovery to the southward. One of these vessels, the Delight, was soon after wrecked among the shoals near Sable Island; and of above 100 men on board,

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