THE VOYAGERS 



Kingdom of Muscovy led the Merchant Adventurers to 

 concentrate their efforts on developing trade with Trade with 

 Russia, and gave a motive to further voyaging. Chan- 

 celor himself was cast away and drowned on the coast 

 of Scotland in 1556, as he was bringing the first 

 Russian ambassador to the Court of England, but his 

 work went on. Stephen Burrough, who had served 

 under him, in the same year explored the coast of Nova 

 Zembla; and Anthony Jenkinson, in 1558, went as far 

 as Bokhara to seek for an overland route to Cathay. 

 The last of the North Eastern voyages was undertaken 

 by Arthur Pet and Charles Jackman in the year 

 1580. They sailed as far as the Sea of Kara, but the ice 

 and fogs were too much for them ; Jackman never 

 reached home, and the failure of the expedition cast grave 

 doubts on the possibility of reaching Cathay by the 

 North East. By this time, moreover, Frobisher's voyages 

 to the North West had awakened hopes of gold to be 

 found in that inhospitable region ; and Hawkins and 

 Drake, by their exploits in the Spanish Indies, had 

 begun a new era in English navigation, and given a 

 new direction to English policy. In the excitement of 

 these later developments the North East passage was 

 forgotten. 



When the North West attempt, after a lapse of many 

 years, was again taken up, it led to far-reaching conse- 

 quences. The only incidental gain of the North Eastern 

 voyages was the establishment of trading relations with 

 Russia. There was no word of treasure to be found 

 on the frozen Siberian coast, no prospect of settlement 

 there, and the voyagers came into conflict with no rival 

 nations. The search for gold, the beginnings of colonisa- 



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