BAFFIN, DAMPIEE, ETC. 483 



homeward vojage, which was performed under the extremity of 

 famine. Whatever horrors may have attended the last moments 

 of Hudson, his sufferings were less, for his conscience was unde- 

 filed by guilt. 



In the year 1616 Baffin sailed round the enormous bay to 

 which his name has been given, but without attempting to 

 penetrate through any one of those wide sounds that have led 

 the Arctic navigators of our days to so many glorious disco- 

 veries. 



From the times of Tasman, whose bold voyage through the 

 wastes of the Southern Pacific has already been mentioned, to 

 those of our own immortal Cook, but very little was done for 

 the progress of geography, as if, after so many heroic endeavours, 

 the spirit of maritime discovery had required a long repose to 

 recruit its energies, ere the greatest navigator of modern times 

 was destined to unveil the mysterious darkness which still con- 

 cealed one half of the vast Pacific from the knowledge of man- 

 kind. The voyages most worthy of remark during this period 

 were those of the Cossack Semen Deshnew (1654), who sailed 

 from the mouth of the Kolyma Eiver round the eastern pro- 

 montory of Asia, and must be considered as the discoverer of 

 Behring's Straits; of the adventurous Dampier (1689 — 1691), 

 that strange combination of the buccaneer, the author, and the 

 naturalist, who first discovered the strait which separates New 

 Guinea from New Ireland; of the Dutchman Eoggewein (1721 

 — 23), who made known some islands in the Pacific; of the 

 brothers Laptew and of Prontschitschew (1734 — 1743), who 

 unveiled the greatest part of the Siberian coast ; of Commodore 

 Anson (1740 — 1744), whose heroic sufferings and successes in the 

 Pacific still live in the memory of his countrymen ; and of the 

 unfortunate Behring (1730 — 1741), who terminated his second 

 unsuccessful exploring expedition by a miserable death on a 

 desert island. 



After the peace of Aix la Chapelle England felt that the 

 dominion of the seas imposed upon her the obligation of extend- 

 ing the bounds of geographical knowledge, and thus in rapid 

 succession Byron (1764) and Wallis and Carteret (1766—1768) 

 were sent forth to discover unknown shores, while France made 

 & simultaneous effort to refresh the somewhat meagre laurels she 



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