34 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



the North Pole thus obtaining a much more direct 

 route than by doubling the distant and stormy Cape 

 of Good Hope is one of those Utopian and fan- 

 ciful conceptions, which have charmed and deluded 

 the imaginations of nautical men during several 

 centuries. The first formal proposition which was 

 ever made on the subject by a person of consequence 

 came from a distinguished merchant of Bristol, who, 

 in 1527, presented a memorial to King Henry VIII. 

 of England, setting forth some considerations in 

 favor of the feasibility and desirableness of obtaining 

 such a passage. But that royal and detestable brute 

 was too busily engaged in gratifying his passions and 

 divorcing and murdering his wives, to devote any 

 serious attention to so dangerous and repulsive an 

 enterprise. The first expedition which was sent 

 forth to explore the Polar seas was fitted out by a 

 few merchants of London during the earlier portion 

 of the seventeenth century. Their exertions did not 

 accomplish any important results or attain any very 

 valuable information; yet the subject attracted 

 public attention, and the lapse of time was only 

 necessary to increase the interest already felt in 

 reference to it. 



In 1773 the first expedition which was organized 

 with the patronage of the British Government waa 

 despatched under the command of Captain Phipps, 



