HISTORICAL SUMMARY 75 



On his second voyage Davis coasted the American shore from 

 the 67th to the 57th degree of latitude, but added nothing to 

 his previous discoveries to the northward of Hudson strait. 

 Keeping near the Greenland coast, on his way northward, Davis 

 on his third voyage reached latitude 72 15'. The northern 

 coast of Greenland he called the London coast. Leaving this, 

 he sailed west for forty leagues, where he fell in with the ice of 

 the ' middle pack ' of the whalers ; a strong gale then forced him 

 south along the edge of the ice, so that no land was seen either 

 to the west or north. 



George Weymouth was the next adventurer to seek the north- 

 west passage. He was fitted out by the Muscovy Company in 

 1602. On the 28th of June, in the Discovery, he reached 

 Warwicks island, between Frobisher and Cumberland bays, 

 and sailing northward he passed Cape Walsingham and nearly 

 reached the 69th parallel, when the crew mutinied and forced 

 him to return south. Passing around Hatton headland on 

 Resolution island, he sailed a considerable distance up Hudson 

 strait, and then returned to England, where he arrived on the 

 5th of August. 



Captain John Knight, in the Hope-well, sailed in 1606, but 

 the voyage terminated speedily and disastrously by the death of 

 Knight, his mate and three of the crew, who were surprised and 

 slain by the Eskimos. 



Undeterred by these unsuccessful attempts, Sir John Wol- 

 stenholme and Sir Dudley Digges, in 1610, resolved to employ 

 the Discovery, of fifty-five tons, in searching for the northwest 

 passage, and nominated Henry Hudson to the command. He 

 had proved his worth on previous voyages to Spitzbergen and 

 to the Hudson river. On this, the last of his voyages, he first 

 sighted the south shores of Greenland; eleven days later he 

 entered Frobisher bay, but was soon turned back by ice, and so 

 passed south into Hudson strait, which he followed westward 

 into TJngava bay, where he was greatly obstructed by ice. Pass- 



