( 218 ) 1603/0 



VARIOUS VOYAGES, OF A MIXED CHARACTER, TO 

 HIGH NORTHERN LATITUDES. 



From 1603 to \6\5. 



The various vovao-es which had been made mto 

 the arctic seas, for the purpose of discovering a 

 passage to the Indies, not only laid the foundation 

 of an extensive and advantageous commerce with 

 Russia, but gave rise to the regular establishment 

 of the fisheries of Newfoundland, of Davis Strait 

 and of Spitzbergen. So early as the year 1603, 

 the '^ worshipful Francis Cherie' fitted out a 

 ship, called the Grace, of fiftie tons, whereof 

 Stephen Bennet was master, with instructions 

 to visit Cola in the first place, in order to dispose of 

 her cargo, and take in such other goods as Lapland 

 might aflbrd ; and after that " to proceed upon 

 some discoverie." For the latter purpose Bennet 

 left the river of Cola on the 6th of August, with a 

 determination to sail as far as 80° of latitude, if 

 nothing should hinder him. On the 17th of 

 August he fell in with an island, on w^hich the 

 people landed, but found nothing but two foxes, 

 one white the other black, a piece of lead, and a 

 fragment of a morse's tooth. Being too late in the 

 year to attempt any thing farther to the north, he 

 stood from this island to the westward, continuing 

 in the same parallel till he had an observation, by 



