Chap. VIII. PARRY'S THIRD VOYAGE. 271 



racy with which they recorded their discoveries, one cannot 

 less admire the intrepidity, perseverance, and skill with which, 

 inadequately furnished as they were, those discoveries were 

 effected, and every difficulty and danger braved. That any 

 man, in a single frail vessel of five-and-twenty tons, ill-found 

 in most respects, and wholly unprovided for wintering, having 

 to contend with a thousand real difficulties, as well as with 

 numberless imaginary ones, which the superstitions then 

 existing among sailors would not fail to conjure up — that 

 anv man, under such circumstances, should, two hundred 

 years ago, have persevered in accomplishing what our old 

 navigators did accomplish, is, I confess, sufficient to create 

 in my mind a feeling of the highest pride on the one hand, 

 and almost approaching to humiliation on the other: of 

 pride, in remembering that it was oar countrymen who per- 

 formed these exploits ; of humiliation, when I consider how 

 little, with all our advantages, we have succeeded in going 

 beyond them. 



" Indeed, the longer our experience has been in the navi- 

 gation of the icy seas, and the more intimate our acquaint- 

 ance with all its difficulties and all its precariousness, the 

 higher have our admiration and respect been raised for those 

 who went before us in these enterprises. Persevering in 

 difficulty, unappalled by danger, and patient under distress, 

 they scarcely ever use the language of complaint, much less 

 that of despair ; and sometimes, when all human hope seems 

 at its lowest ebb, they furnish the most beautiful examples 

 of that firm reliance on a merciful and superintending 

 Providence which Is the only rational source of true for- 

 titude in man. Often, with their narratives impressed upon 

 my mind, and surrounded by the very difficulties which they 

 in their frail and inefficient barks undauntedly encountered 

 and overcame, have I been tempted to exclaim, with all the 

 enthusiasm of Purchas, ' How shall I admire your heroicke 



