Preliminary Chapter. 



XI V 



the Coast where he apprehended no European had been before, was amii/rd in 

 the very Depth of Wiutei, lo hear that some of his Com])any had «lisc()\ cicd an 

 English settlement, as they Avere pleased to eall it near Port Nelson. He v.oni 

 thither with a Design to attack it; but at his Arrival found ii a jx.oi miscialilc 

 Cottage covered with Turf, in which were half a Dozen half star\('<l Wictclics, 

 without Arms, and without Strength to use them if they had had any. 'lUrsv. 

 People told him that they were Part of a Ship's Crew from Boston, that they were 

 set on Shore to look for a Place, where the Ship to which they belonged might 

 Winter ; and that the next Morning the Ice drove the Ship out of the Port, which 

 they never saw more. As we have no Date to this Relation, it is impossibh'. to 

 say whether it was that Ship from Boston mentioned in de Fonte's Account or 

 not; but if it was, and the Crew perished as very probably they might in this 

 inhospitable Country, it affords a clear and easy Solution of that, otherwise mi- 

 answerable Difliculty, as to Captain Shapley's making such a Voyage, and so 

 considerable a Discovery, without its coming to be known either in X. England, 

 or in Old. But if we should be wrong in this Conjecture, it would still remain an 

 incoutestible Proof that some Attempts were made from Boston, Avhcn they were 

 laid aside and forgot at London & Bristol. 



[The voyage was j)robably for trading purposes only.] 



PRINCIPAL ENGLISH ARCTIC PUBLICATIONS BETWEEN THE YEARS 1818 



AND 1860. 



Hall's journals and correspondence show that he had access to 

 the larger number of the following-named authorities. It a])pears 

 also, in his notes and by a letter from Mrs. Hall, that his library — a 

 total loss on his Polaris voyage — included many of them ; some } (re- 

 sented and others loaned to him by his New York friends. He liad 

 specially noted the '' Record of Am'oral Phenomena" observed by Arc- 

 tic voyagers from 1746 to 1856, compiled by the late Peter Force, of 

 Washington. [Smithsonian Contributions, vol. viii, 1856.] 



The hst of authorities which follows includes Hall's volumes and 

 others consulted in preparing this chapter. 



