48 THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. [chap. 



would have contended with England for the honour of oj)ening 

 the long series of expeditions to the north-east.^ 



England's navigation is at present greater beyond comparison 

 than that of any other country, but it is not of old date. In the 

 middle of the sixteenth century it was still very inconsiderable, 

 and mainly confined to coast voyages in Europe, and a few 

 fishing expeditions to Iceland and Newfoundland.^ The great 

 power of Spain and Portugal by sea, and their jealousy of other 

 countries rendered it impossible at that period for foreign sea- 

 farers to carry on traffic in the East-Asiatic countries, which 

 had been sketched by Marco Polo with so attractive accounts of 

 unheard-of richness in gold and jewels, in costly stuffs, in spices 

 and perfumes. In order that the merchants of northern Europe 

 might obtain a share of the profit, it appeared to be necessary 

 to discover new routes, inaccessible to the armadas of the 

 Pyrenean peninsula. Here lies the explanation of the zeal with 

 which the English and the Dutch, time after time, sent out 

 vessels, equipped at great expense, in search of a new way to 

 India and China, either by the Pole, by the north-west, along 

 the north coast of the new world, or by the north-east, along 

 the north coast of the old. The voyages first ceased when the 

 maritime supremacy of Spain and Portugal was broken. By 

 none of them was the intended object gained, but it is remark- 

 able that in any case they gave the first start to the development 

 of England's ocean navigation. 



Sir Hugh Willoughby's in 1553 was thus the first maritime 

 expedition undertaken on a large scale, which was sent from 



' The first to incite to voyages of discovery in the polar regions was 

 an EngUshman, Robert Thorne, who long lived at Seville. Seeing all other 

 countries were already discovered by Spaniards and Portuguese, he ui'ged 

 Henry VIII. in 1527 to undertake discoveries in the north. After reaching 

 the Pole (going sufficiently far north) one could turn to the east, and, first 

 passing the land of the Tartars, get to China and so to Malacca, the East 

 Indies, and the Cape of Good Hope, and thus circumnavigate the "whole 

 world." One could also turn to the west, sail along the back of New- 

 foundland, and return by the Straits of Magellan (Richard Hakluyt, The 

 Principael Navigations, Voiages, and Discoveries of the English Nation, &c., 

 London, 1589, p. 250). Two years before, Paulus Jovius, on the ground 

 of communications from an ambassador from the Russian Czar to Pope 

 Clement VII., states that Russia is surrounded on the north by an immense 

 ocean, by which it is possible, if one keeps to the right shore, and if no 

 land comes between, to sail to China. (Pauli Jovii Opera Omnia, Basel, 

 1578, third part, p. 88 ; the description of Russia, inserted there under the 

 title " Libellus de legatione Basilii ad Clementem VII.," was printed for 

 the first time at Rome in 1525.) 



^ In the year 1540, London, exclusive of the Royal Navy, had no more 

 than four vessels, whose draught exceeded 120 tons (Anderson, Origin of 

 Commerce, London, 1787, vol. ii. p. 67). Most of the coast towns of 

 Scandinavia have thus in our days a greater sea-going fleet than London 

 had at that time. 



