230 



DISCOVERIES OF l6l9- 



further discoverie l)e made of the said seas and 

 lands adjacent," which he thinks might very well 

 be performed by the little pinnace wdth a crew of 

 ten men. For several years after this the whale 

 fishery proved successful, till at length the Dutch 

 fairly drove the English from this lucrative branch 

 of trade. 



JENS MUNK. 1619. 



The discoveries of Hudson and Baffin once 



more turned the attention of the slumbermg 



Danes towards their lost colonies on the coasts of 



Greenland, and perhaps held out to them a hope 



of completing the long-sought-for passage in that 



direction to the Indies. Accordingly in the year 



1619, Christian IV. caused two ships to be fitted 



out on a voyage of discovery, the command of 



which was given to an experienced seaman of the 



name of Jens Munk. The vessels, it would seem, 



were chiefly manned with English sailors, who no 



doubt had been employed on some of the former 



expeditions for making discoveries, or on the 



whale fishery. Munk left Elsineur on the 18th 



May, and on the 20th June made Cape Farewell, 



and endeavoured to stand up Davis's Strait, wath 



the intention, as it would seem, of pursuing the 



track of Baffin and By lot; but he found his vessels 



so perpetually hampered with ice, that he returned 



