23 



CHAPTER I. 



Expedition determined upon. — Its objects. — Instructions. — 

 Equipment. — Departure. — Visit Shetland. — A leak dis- 

 covered. — Cherie Island. — Packed Ice. — Spitzbergen. — 

 Magdalena Bay. — Glaciers. 



The unsuccessful termination of the expedition 

 which had been sent out in 17§3, under the 

 Hon. Captain Phipps, and the decided opinion 

 given by that officer of the impracticability of 

 the undertaking, set at rest for a time the ques- 

 tion of a north-west passage, and the general 

 war in which England soon after became in- 

 volved opened a new field for exertion. The 

 spirit of discovery, however, only slumbered 

 whilst the energies of the country were neces- 

 sarily devoted to more important objects; for 

 no sooner had the allied powers secured to 

 Europe a general peace, than northern discovery 

 was resumed, and prosecuted with an ardour 

 worthy of a great maritime nation. 



At this period, when the whole world was 

 at peace, it was thought that the question of 

 a north-west passage to the Pacific, which had 



