PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 215 



CHAPTER I. 



Events which led to the prosecution of Arctic discovery. — Ex- 

 tent of geographical knowledge in the 15th century. — Ori- 

 ental commerce. — Monopoly. — Columbus. — Jealousy of the 

 Portuguese leads to the discovery of the Cape of Good 

 Hope, and a navigable route to Cathay. — England desirous 

 of participating in oriental commerce attempts a passage 

 through the Arctic seas — First Polar voyage. 



The northern seas, in defiance of the boisterous 

 nature of the climate, appear to have been more 

 extensively navigated at an early period than 

 parts of the Atlantic lying nearer the equator. 

 Partly from accident, such as vessels being driven 

 away by gales of wind, and partly from . the rest- 

 less ambition of those piratical northern nations 

 whose fleets spread terror around them, Iceland 

 and Greenland were colonised, and Newfound- 

 land, and, in all probability the continent of 

 America, were discovered before the commence- 

 ment of the eleventh century. The relations of 

 these very early enterprises, however, have been 

 so imperfectly handed clown to us, that notwith- 

 standing the interesting matter they contain, 

 I must pass them over, and proceed to those 



