HUDSON BAY A NATIONAL ASSET 



that of Hudson Strait was made by Sir Martin Frobisher, 

 who, in command of three small vessels, two of 25 tons and 

 one of only 10 tons, sighted the eastern entrance to the strait 

 in Jnly, 1576, and two years later, with a fleet of fifteen 

 ships in quest of ore, entered Hudson Strait and " sailed 

 several days westward through it." 



John Davis, in 1585, rediscovered the strait, and, in 1602, 

 George Weymouth, in the Discovery, sailed a considerable 

 distance up it. 



Following the discovery of the bay by Hudson, Sir Thomas 

 Button re-entered it in 1612, and after spending the summer 

 in exploring the northern and western shores, he wintered in 

 the mouth of the Nelson Eiver, and was thus the first to suc- 

 cessfully pass a winter in the bay and to return with the 

 fruits of his labors. 



In the summer of 1615 Bafiin passed through Hudson 

 Strait and into the bay in search of a north-west passage, 

 but finding none, he returned the same season to England. 



In May, 1619, Captain Jens Munk, in command of a 

 Danish Arctic expedition, sailed from Copenhagen with two 

 small vessels and a total of sixty-four men. He reached the 

 entrance to Hudson Strait (Fretum Christian, as named 

 by him), on July the 21th, and after experiencing much 

 difficulty, and escaping many dangers in his little crafts, 

 chiefly from meeting with drifting ice, he entered Hudson 

 Bay, and apparently crossed it in a comparatively direct 

 course to the mouth of the Churchill River, which harbor 

 he entered early in September, and was thus the first white 

 man, so far as we know, to enter that port. 



Munk named the country in the vicinity of Churchill 

 Novam Daniam, and after securing his vessels as best he 

 ■could, he sent out exploring parties, both to the north and 

 the south. Finding no better harbor on the coast than at 

 Churchill, he decided to spend the winter there, and accord- 

 ingly moored his ships, as nearly as can be ascertained from 



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