THE EXPLORATIONS OF DAVIS. 127 



the appointment of captain and chief pilot of the new expedition. Two small vessels, the 

 Sunshine and Moonshine, were employed, and on one of them four musicians were taken. 

 They left Dartmouth on the 7th of June, 1585, and on the 19th of July were off the 

 west coast of Greenland, where they noted "a mighty great roaring of the sea," which 

 was found to proceed from the "rowling together of islands of ice." As they proceeded 

 northward, the fog, which had hampered their movements, clearing away, they observed 

 "a rocky and mountainous land, in form of a sugar-loaf," its summit, covered with snow, 

 appearing, as it were, above the clouds. The aspect of all around was so uninviting 

 that Davis named it " The Land of Desolation." He could not land there, owing to 



f O 



the coast ice, and after sundry explorations to the southward, and again to the north- 

 westward, discovered an archipelago of islands, " among which were many free sounds, 

 and good roads for shipping," to which he gave the title of Gilbert's Sound. Here a 

 multitude of natives approached in their canoes, on which the musicians began to perform, 

 and the sailors to dance and make signs of friendship. This delighted the " salvages," 

 and the sailors obtained from them almost whatever they wished canoes, clothing, bows, 

 and native implements. After other explorations they reached a fine open passage 

 (Cumberland Strait) between Frobisher's Archipelago and the land now called Cumber- 

 land's Island, entirely free from ice, "and the water of the colour, nature, and quality 

 of the main ocean." They proceeded up it a distance of sixty leagues, when they found 

 a cluster of islands in the middle of the passage, and the weather being bad and tht 1 

 season late, they, after a week's further stay, determined to sail for England, where they 

 arrived safely on September 30th. 



The reports given by Davis respecting the vast number of whales and seals observed, 

 and the peltries to be obtained from the Esquimaux, aroused the enterprise of the 

 merchants, and several persons in Exeter and other parts of the West of England 

 combined to add a trading vessel, the Mermaid, of one hundred and twenty tons, to 

 those which had been employed the previous season. Davis again reached the west 

 coast of Greenland, where much intercourse was held with the natives, who came off to 

 the vessels sometimes in as many as one "hundred canoes at a time . . . bringing 

 with them seale skinnes, stagge skinnes, white hares, seale fish, samon peale, smal cod, 

 dry caplin, with other fish, and birds such as the country did yield." The natives do 

 not seem to have made quite so favourable an impression as on the former occasion, and 

 .were described as thievish and mischievous, prone to steal everything on which they could 

 lay their hands. After some remarks on their diet, we are gravely informed that they 

 "drink salt water," and eat grass and ice as luxuries. They were found to be extremely 

 nimble and strong, and fond of leaping and wrestling, in which they beat the best of 

 the crew, who were west-country wrestlers. In the middle of July the adventurous 

 navigators were alarmed at the appearance of a most " mighty and strange quantity of yce 

 in one entire masse," so large that Davis was afraid to mention its dimensions, lest he 

 should not be believed. The same modesty and diffidence has not been observed, to any 

 marked degree, in the narratives of most modern voyagers and travellers ! They coasted 

 the ice till the end of July, and the cold was so severe, even in this month, that the shrouds, 

 ropes, and sails were frozen, and the air was loaded with a thick fog. Sickness prevailed 



