1550.-1600.] CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY. 19 



Out of the several attempts which had been made 

 to find a passage on the north of Eiuope or Ameri- 

 ca to the East Indies, arose the Archangel trade ; 

 for the prosecution of which, the Russia Company 

 was established under an advantageous charter. 

 The active prosecution of this trade, and the annual 

 fishery about the North Cape and Cherry Island, 

 for the walrus, so inured the English to these bois- 

 terous and frigid regions, that, on the retreat of the 

 objects of their pursuit, they extended their voyage 

 (which had usually terminated at Cherry Island) to 

 the northward, along the coast of Spitzbergen, 

 where they resigned the capture of the walrus and 

 seal, for the more important fishery of the whale. 



The discovery of the Greenland whale-fishery, it 

 therefore appears, w^as not a circumstance that im- 

 mediately resulted from the prior discovery of Spitz- 

 bergen, but it arose out of the enterprising charac- 

 ter of the adventurers, employed in commercial spe- 

 culations at this period ; which character would, 

 most undoubtedly, have led them to follow the ob- 

 jects of pursuit, when they retreated to the north- 

 ward, independent of the existence of these islands. 

 Hence, whatever importance is attached to the dis- 

 covery of these barren lands, the value of the disco- 

 very is eclipsed by that of the whale-fishery in the 

 prolific seas adjacent ; as it in a short time proved 

 the most hicrative, and the most important branch 



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