26 TRANSACTIONS iSgg-'oO. 



Muscovy or Russian Company. Cabot became Life Governor, 

 and because of his position and experience had much to do in 

 shaping the poHcy and preparing the plans of the company. He 

 instructed the captains in the company's service to observe 

 closely the variations of the magnetic needle and for that purpose 

 introduced the lyOg Book, declared to be the most admirable of all 

 the inventions for the furtherance of the science of navigation, 

 ranking, probably, in the minds of practical seafaring men next to 

 the three " ly's " of the sailor, the Lead, the Log and the 

 Lookout. 



The first expedition the Company despatched was that of 

 Willoughby and Chancellor in 1553, before they obtained their 

 charter. The departure of the pioneers with their three Bonas — 

 Edzvard Bo?javefit2ire, Bona Esperanza and Bona Co?ifide?itia , as 

 their ships were named, is described by a reporter of the day ; 

 " At Greenwich the common people flocked together ; the 

 courtiers ran out ; the Privy Council looked out of the windows , 

 and the others ran up to the tops of the towers. The ships shot 

 off their ordinance insomuch that the hills sounded therewith. 

 The valleys and the waters gave an echo and the mariners shout- 

 ed so that the sky rang again with the noise thereof. From every 

 point of vantage on shipboard the men wave their farewells. One 

 stands on the poop of the ship and by his gestures bids farewell 

 to his friends. Another walks upon the hatches. Another climbs 

 the shrouds. Another stands upon the main yard and another in 

 the maintop " — and thus with cheering and waving of hats and 

 hands the vessels pass on and out of the historic river on their 

 perilous voyage. 



Thus has it ever been when Britain sends out her ' ' Tommy 

 Atkins ' ' and her ' ' Jack Tars ' ' to encounters in which there are 

 sure to be dangers and likely to be deaths. 



Sir Hugh Willoughby discovered Nova Zembla — or as it is 

 called now Novaya Zemlya, "the Newland," attempted to 

 winter in Lapland and perished with the crews of his two ships. 

 In all 70 men were frozen to death. The poet says of the cold that it 



To the cordage glued 



The sailor, and the pilot to the helm," 



and thus, two years after, some Laplanders found Willoughby's 

 ships uninjured, as sound as when they sailed away from the 

 Thames followed by the hearty good wishes of high and low. 



