NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. SlS 



laavigated, in the very same vessel ; and the voyages 

 of Davis, chiefly in vessels of 50, 35, and 10 tons 

 burden. The recent voyage of Captain Ross into 

 Baffin's Bay, has done a degree of credit to the me- 

 mory of Baffin, by substantiating his accuracy and 

 faithfulness which were begun to be disputed, 

 and by showing them to be greater in extent than 

 his most sanguine advocates could have expected. 



Another observation which must be made by 

 every reader of the voyages of our old navigators, and 

 which must be particularly gratifying to those who 

 consider religion as the chief business of this life, is 

 the strain of piety and dependence on Divine Pro- 

 vidence, which runs through almost every narrative. 

 Their honest and laudable acknowledgments of a 

 particular interference of the Almighty, in working 

 out deliverance for them in times of difficulty and 

 danger ; and their frequent declarations, expressive 

 of their reliance upon Providence, for assistance and 

 protection in their adventurous imdertakings, are 

 worthy of our imitation. Thus, while our modern 

 voyagers are much in the habit of attributing their 

 most remarkable deliverances to " luck," " chance" 

 and " fortune," those of old evidenced certainly a 

 more Christian-like feelingunder such circumstances, 

 by referring their deliveranc43s to that Great Being 

 from whom alone every good thing must be derive 

 ed. They only who have a similar dependence on 

 Providence, and who have been occasionally in try^ 



