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PHIPPs’S JOURNALs 539
No voyage, however, appears to have been undertaken to explore the circumpolar
feas till the year 1607, when “ Henry Hudfon was fet forth, at the charge of certaii
worfhipful merchants of London, to difcover a pafiage by the North Pole to Japan and
China.”? He failed from Gravefend on the firft of May, in a fhip called the Hopewell,
having with him ten men and a boy. I have taken great pains to find his o1 iginal
journal, as wellas thofe of fome others of the adventurers who followed him, but with
out fuccefs : the only account I have feen is an imperfect abridgement in Purchas, by
which it is not poffible to lay down his track ; from which however, I have drawn the
following particulars :—He fell in with the land to the Weftward in latitude 73°, on the
twenty-firft of June, which he named Hold-with-Hope. ‘The twenty-feventh, he fellin
with Spitfbergen, and met with much ice; he got to 80° 23’, which was the northern-
molt latitude he obferved in. Giving an account of the conclufion of his difcoveries,
he fays, ** On the fixteenth of Auguft I faw land, by reafon of the clearnefs of the
weather, {tretching far into 82°, and, by the bowing and fhewing of the fky, much
further ; which when I firft faw, I hoped to have had a free fea between the land and
the ice, and meant to have compaffed this land by the North; but now finding it was
impoffible, by means of the abundance of ice compafling us about by the North, and
joining tothe land; and feeing God did blefs us with a wind, we returned, bearing up
the helm.” He afterwards adds: * And this I can affure at this prefent, that between
78° and an half, and 82°, by this way there is no paflage.’’?—In confequence of this
opinion, he was the next year employed on the North-Eaft difcovery. . ;
In March 1609, old ftyle, “* A voyage was fet forth by the right worfhipful Sir
‘Thomas Smith, and the reft of the Mufcovy Company, to Cherry Iand, and fora
further difcovery to be made towards the North Pole, for the likelihood of a trade or a
paflage that way, in the fhip called the Amity, of burthen feventy tuns, in which Jonas
Poole was mafter, having fourteen men and one boy.”—He weighed from Blackwall,
March the firft old ftyle ; and after great feverity of weather, and much difficulty from
the ice, he made the South part of Spitfbergen on the fixteenth of May. He failed along
and founded the coaft, giving names to feveral places, and making many very accurate
obfervations. On the twenty-fixth, being near Fair Foreland, he fent his mate on fhore =
—and fpeaking of the account he gave at his return, fays, ‘‘ Moreover, I was certified
that all the ponds and lakes were unfrozen, they being frefh water; which putteth me in
hope of a mild fummer here, after fo fharp a beginning as I have had ; and my opinion
is fuch, and I affure myfelf it is fo, that a pafage may be foon attained this way by the
Pole, as any unknown way whatfoever, by reafon the fun doth give a great heat in this
climate, and the ice (I mean that freezeth here) is nothing fo hugéas I have feen in
feventy three degrees.”
Thefe hopes, however, he was foon obliged to relinquifh for that year, having twice
attempted in vain to get beyond 79° 50’. On the twenty-firft of June, he ftood to the
Southward, to get a loading of fifh, and arrived in London the laft of Auguft. He
was employed the following year (1611) in a fmall bark called the Elizabeth, of fifty
tuns. ‘The inftrutions for this voyage, which may be found at length in Purchas, are
excellently drawn up: they direét him, after having attended the fifhery for fome time,
to attempt difcoveries to the North Pole as long as the feafon will permit ; witha difcre-
tionary claufe, to a& in unforefeen cafes as fhall appear to him moft for the advancement
of the difcovery, and intereft of his employers. This however proved an unfortunate
voyage: for having ftaid in Crofs Road till the fixteenth of June, on account of the bad
weather, and great quantity of ice, he failed from thence on that day, and {teered W. by
N. fourteen leagues, where he founda bank of ice: he returned to Crofs Road ; from
22.2 : whence
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