200 DISCOVERIES OF I6l2. 



with some islands which he named Ma nceVs Islands^ 

 and which are now marked on the charts as Mans- 

 jklcVs Islands. To the extreme point of South- 

 ampton Island, lying to the westward of Carey's 

 Swan's Nest, hegavethe irdmeoi'CapeSouthainpto?!^ 

 and to that on the east of it Cape Pembroke. After 

 this he passed Cape Chidley, and in sixteen days 

 reached England in the autumn of 1613. 



There seems to have been no reason why the 

 proceedings of the voyage of Sir Thomas Button 

 should have been kept secret, or published only 

 piecemeal. He was the first who reached the 

 eastern coast of America on the western side of 

 Hudson's Bav, and discovered Nelson's River, 

 which has long been the principal settlement of the 

 Hudson's Bay Company. He w as strongly possessed 

 with the idea of the existence of a north-west pas- 

 sage ; and he told ^Ir. Briggs, the celebrated mathe- 

 matician, that he had convinced King James of the 

 truth of this opinion, which is said to have had so 

 much infiuence with the Adventurers as to induce 

 them to make a further attempt the following year. 



JAMES HALL — Fourtli VoT/agc. 1612. 



In the same year that Sir Thomas Button sailed 

 from England, James Hall also made a fourth 

 voyage, with two small vessels, called t\\Q Patience 

 and Hearths Ease, fitted out by a new set of 



