THE ENGLISH VOYAGES 



spent as pilot on the East India route, in the service 

 at first of the Dutch and afterwards of the East India 



Death of Company. He was killed in 1605 by the treachery of 

 Japanese pirates, to whom the Master of his ship, the 

 T'tger^ had offered hospitality and courtesy while the two 

 vessels lay alongside in the Straits of Malacca. The 

 North Western enterprise which had been the dream 

 of his life passed into the hands of the Dutch, who were 

 beginning also, before the century closed, to supplant 

 the English in the trade with Russia. 



The stalwart honesty and simplicity of the character 

 and writings of Davis give a singular charm to his 

 name and story. He was a man after Hakluyt^s own 

 heart, a fearless explorer, a trusted leader, an ardent 

 student and professor of the science of navigation. 

 He yields to none in esteem and zeal for his pro- 



The praise of fession. ' Sith Navigation,' he says, 'is the mean 

 whereby countries are discovered, and community 

 drawn between nation and nation, the word of God 

 published to the blessed recovery of the foreign off- 

 casts from whence it hath pleased his divine Majesty 

 as yet to detain the brightness of his glory : and that 

 by Navigation common-weals through mutual trade 

 are not only sustained, but mightily enriched; with 

 how great esteem ought the painful Seaman to be 

 embraced, by whose hard adventures such excellent 

 benefits are achieved, for by his exceeding great 

 hazards the form of the Earth, the quantities of 

 countries, the diversity of nations, and the natures of 

 Zones, Climates, Countries, and people, are apparently 

 made known to us; besides the great benefits mutually 

 interchanged between nations of such fruits, commodi- 



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