l6l6. BYLOT AND BAFFIX. 217 



sounds, they were perhaps nothing more than 

 openings between huge ice-bergs, or at any rate 

 passages made by an archipelago of islands. Baf- 

 fin is so much aware of this, that in his letter to 

 Air. John Wolstenholme he observes, *' some may 

 object and aske why we sought that coast no 

 better?" to which he alleges, in answer, the bad- 

 ness of the weather, the loss of anchors, the weak- 

 ness of the crew, and the advanced season of the 

 year. 



Purchas, however, is blameable to a certain 

 degree, for the meagreness of Baffin's journal and 

 the suppression of a chart which accompanied it ; 

 for he admits, in a marginal note, that " this map 

 of the author's for this and the former voyage, 

 with the tables of his journall and sayling, were 

 somewhat troublesome and too costly to insert."* 

 It may be observed, that Baffin drew off from the 

 main land of America to the eastward, from the 

 very spot where of all others a passage is most 

 likely to be found ; but he is not to blame for 

 not then possessing that knowledge which Cook 

 and Hearne and Mackenzie have since supplied. 



* Purchas's Pilgrims, vol. iii. p. 847^. — " Purchas,'* says Dal- 

 rymple, " has unpardonably omitted publishing Baffin's original 

 map, which, as well as his journal, he had in his possession. 

 Nor can the low state of the art of engraving at that time be 

 pleaded as an excuse, since that valuable original merited his 

 attention more than the vile scraps he has given from Hondius." 

 ^-Mem. of a Map of the Lands around the North Pole. 



