XL] HENRY HUDSON. 171 



in honour of his patron, and to this day the two names are 

 used almost indiscriminately. 



In 1607, Henry Hudson was despatched by the Muscovy 

 Company, with orders to sail, if possible, right across the 

 pole. Although perpetually baffled by the ice, Hudson at 

 last succeeded in reaching the north-west extremity of 

 Spitzbergen, but finding his further progress arrested by an 

 impenetrable barrier of fixed ice, he was forced to return. 

 A few years later, Jonas Poole — having been sent in the 

 same direction, instead of prosecuting any discoveries, wisely 

 set himself to killing the sea-horses that frequent the Arctic 

 ice-fields, and in lieu of tidings of new lands — brought back 

 a valuable cargo of walrus tusks. In 1615. Fotherby started 

 with the intention of renewing the attempt to sail across the 

 north pole, but after encountering many dangers he also was 

 forced to return. It was during the course of his homeward 

 voyage that he fell in with the island of Jan May en. Soon 

 afterwards, the discovery by Hudson and Davis, of the seas 

 and straits to which they have given their names, diverted 

 the attention of the public from all thoughts of a north-east 

 passage, and the Spitzbergen waters were only frequented 

 by ships engaged in the fisheries. The gradual disappear- 

 ance of the whale, and the discovery of more profitable fish- 

 ing stations on the west coast of Greenland, subsequently 

 abolished the sole attraction for human being which this 

 inhospitable region ever possessed, and of late years, I un- 

 derstand, the Spitzbergen seas have remained as lonely and 

 unvisited as they were before the first adventurer invaded 

 their solitude. 



Twice only, since the time of Fotherby, has any attempt 

 been made to reach the pole on a north-east course. In 

 1773, Captain Phipps, afterwards Lord Mulgrave, sailed in 

 the " Carcass'' towards Spitzbergen, but he never reached a 

 higher latitude than 8i°. It was in this expedition that Nelson 

 made his first voyage, and had that famous encounter with 

 the bear. The next and last endeavour was undertaken by 

 Parry, in 1827. Unable to get his ship even as far north as 



