2 ACCOUNT OF THE ARCTIC REGIOKS. 



question of the existence of a navigable commu- 

 nication between the European and the Chinese 

 seas, by the north. The first attempts to reach 

 China by sea, were made by steering along the 

 coast of Africa towards the south, and the next by 

 proceeding from the European shore in a westerly 

 direction. The former, which first proved success- 

 ful, was accomplished by Vasquez de Gama, a Por- 

 tugueze, in the year 1497-8 ; and the latter was 

 undertaken by the renowned navigator Columbus, in 

 1492. The notion of steering to India by the 

 north-west, as the shortest way, was suggested 

 about the middle, or latter end of the fifteenth cen- 

 tury, by John Vaz Costa Cortereal, who performed 

 a voyage to Newfoundland, about the year 1463-4 * ; 

 or, according to a more general opinion, by John 

 Cabot, the father of the celebrated Sebastian Cabot, 

 who attempted the na\dgation in 1497, and perhaps 

 also in 1494-5 f . The idea of a passage to India, 

 by the North Pole, was suggested by Robert 

 Thorne, merchant, of Bristol :j:, as early as the year 

 1527 ; and the opinion of a passage by the north- 

 east, was proposed soon afterwards. 



The universal interest which has been attached 

 to this question of a sea communication between 



* Baruow's " Chronological History of Voyages into the 

 Arctic Regions/' p. 37. 



f Harris's Voyages, vol. ii. p. 191. 



X Piiipps' Voyage towards the North Pole, p 1- 



