INTRODUCTION. 



polar regions being irhpaflable from extreme cold, as, it has 

 been found, they were, in fuppoiing the countries under 

 the Line to be uninhabitable from exceffive heat. With 

 all the fpirit of a man convinced of the glory to be 

 gained, and the probability of fuccefs in the undertaking, 

 he adds, — " God knoweth, that though by it I fhould 

 " have no great intereft, yet I have had, and i\i\\ have, no 

 " little mind of this bufinefs : fo that if I had faculty to 

 " my will, it fhould be the firfl thing that I would un- 

 " derftand, even to attempt, //" our feas Northward be 

 " navigable to the Pole or noT Notwithftanding the 

 many good arguments, with which he fupported his pro- 

 portion, and the offer of his own fervices, it does not 

 appear that he prevailed fo far as to procure an attempt to 

 be made. * 



Borne, in his Regiment of the Sea,, written about the 

 year 15779 mentions this as one of the five ways to 

 Cathay, and dwells chiefly on the mildnefs of climate 

 which he imagines muil: be found near the Pole, from the 

 conftant prefence of the fun during the fummer. Thefe 

 arguments, however, were foon after controverted by 

 Blundeville, in his Treatife on Univerfal Maps. 



In 1578, George Befl:, a gentleman who had been 

 with Sir Martin Frobifher in all his voyages for the dif- 

 covery of the North Weft paflage, wrote a very ingenious 

 difcourfe, to prove all parts of the world habitable. 



B 2 No 





