of discovering a Passage ly the North Vole. 369 



Pole. He dedicated an account of his discoveries to King Edward 

 the Third, and was certainly a person of great learning, and an 

 able astronomer, if we may believe the celebrated Chaucer, who, 

 in his Treatise on the Astrolabe, mentions him with great re- 

 spect. 



After Columbus discovered America, under the auspices of 

 Ferdinand and Isabella, the sovereigns of Europe, and especially 

 Henry the Seventh, turned their thoughts towards, and gave 

 great'encouragement to discoveries. Mr. Robert Thome, who 

 resided many years as a merchant in Spain, and who was after- 

 wards Mayor of Bristol, wrote a letter to Henry the Eighth, in 

 which he strongly recommended a voyage to the North Pole. 

 He gave his reasons more at large in a long Memorial to our 

 Ambassador in Spain, which show him to have been a very judi- 

 cious man, and for those times a very able cosmographer ; and 

 accompanied this Memorial with a Map of the World, to prove 

 the practicability of his proposal. Though this project of his 

 was not attended to, yet a variety of expeditions were made 

 for discovering a passage by the north-west, and others by the 

 north-east, into the South Seas on the one side, and into the 

 Tartarian Ocean on the other, until at length both were declared 

 impracticable by Capiain James and Captain Wood ; soured by 

 their own miscarriages, and being strongly persuaded, that as 

 they did not succeed, none else could. But even these unsuccess- 

 ful voyages were not unprofitable to the nation upon the whole, 

 as they opened a passage to many lucrative fisheries, such as 

 those in Davis's Straits, Baffin's Bay, and on the coast of Spitz- 

 bergen. Besides this, they laid open Hudson's Straits and Bay, 

 with the coast on both sides, which have been already productive 

 of many advantages, and which, in process of time, cannot fail 

 of producing more, in consequence of our being in possession of 

 Canada, and being thereby sole master of those seas and coasts. 



It is, however, very remarkable, that, notwithstanding the 

 views, both of our traders and of such great men as were distin- 

 guished encouragcrs of discoveries, the ablest seamen (who with- 

 o>it doubt are the best judges) were still inclined to this passage 

 by the north, such as Captain Poole, Sir William Monson, and 

 others; and this was still the more remarkable, as they were en- 

 tirely guided therein by the lights of their own experience, hav- 

 ing no knowledge of Mr. Thome's proposal, or of t'ne sentiments 

 of each other. From the reason of the thing, however, they 

 uniformly concurred in the motives they suggested for such an 

 undertaking. They asserted, that this passage would be much 

 shorter and easier than any of those by the north-west or north- 

 east ; that it would bo more healthy for the seamen, and attended 

 with fewer inconveniences; that it would probably open a passage 

 Vol. :')(i. No. 27 1 . AW. I b20. ;> A to 



