220 NORTHERN ROUTE PROPOSED. 



A.D. 



1519. 



splendour of their enterprizes ; and thus, while 

 Spain was pursuing the promising avenues to 

 wealth, which Columbus had opened in the west, 

 the Portuguese, under the skilful direction of 

 Da Gama, and Magelhanes, accomplished the long 

 ardently sought routes to the golden shores of 

 Cathay. 



For several years the Spaniards and Portuguese 

 continued to enrich themselves with the trade 

 they so justly earned, without any attempt being 

 made by other maritime nations to participate 

 in oriental commerce. At length the spirit of 

 enterprise, which had lain dormant in England 

 during nearly thirty years, was revived. Its efforts 

 were, however, directed to a totally different route 

 to that pursued by either Spaniards or Portu- 

 guese. The voyages round the Cape of Good 

 Hope and Cape Horn, or by the Strait of Magel- 

 hanes, were so very objectionable on account of 

 their duration and expense, that it was deter- 

 mined to try whether a navigable passage to 

 India might not exist by the north — a question 

 which from that period to the present day has 

 excited the deepest interest in this country, and 

 from which we may date the commencement of 

 Arctic discovery. 

 a.d. It was now well known that this route to 

 Cathay could only lie either along the northern 



