262 HUDSON. 



a.d. Whether he had wintered at Cola, or had made 



1597. 



a voyage there after having returned home from 

 Spitzbergen, is not even alluded to ; but, as 

 nothing is said of any discovery of his, it is 

 probable that he made none worthy of note. 

 If he circumnavigated Spitzbergen, as some have 

 supposed, it would, without much doubt, have 

 been known to those persons, at least, who were 

 interested in northern discovery ; but so far from 

 this being the case, we find the Muscovy Com- 

 pany, fourteen years afterwards, fitting out a 

 vessel to ascertain whether Spitzbergen " be an 

 island or a mayne."* 



HUDSON'S FIRST VOYAGE. 



1607. F° R several years the English had confined 

 their attempts to discover a near route to China 

 to the northwest, in which direction they had 

 sent out no less than fiYe expeditions between 

 the years 1602 and 1607 ; besides that of Stephen 

 Bennet, who had also made a voyage to Cherie 

 Island. All these voyages were unsuccessful ; 

 and on the return of the last, under Knight, 

 the Company determined to try the practicability 

 of a passage directly northward, either across the 



* Purchas, P%. vol. iii. p. 707. 



