740 



THE POLAR WORLD. 



Hudson was sent out by the Muscovite Company with the simple direction to steer 

 straight for the North pole. He went between Spitzbergen and Greenland, and in the 

 two following years between Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla, and convinced himself 

 that there was no passage in that direction. He .then shot across to Labrador, search- 

 ing southward for an opening through the continent, and discovered the bay of New 

 York and the river which bears his name. On his last voyage in 1610 he sailed 

 through the straits and into the great inland sea named after him, and went hundreds 

 of miles further west than man had gone before. He was, after the Icelanders, the first 

 explorer who wintered in Arctic America. In the following spring his crew mutinied, 

 put him and seven .companions, of whom all but one were invalids, into an open boat, 

 which was cut adrift, and he disappeared forever from human eyes. A part of the 

 crew were killed by the Esquimaux, and a part died of cold and famine, only a few 

 returning to England.^ 



It was now fully believed that Hudson's Bay opened at its other extremity into the 

 Pacific, and several attempts were made to perform the north-west voyage from both 

 sides of the continent ; the most notable was that of Baffin, who in 1616 surveyed the 

 coasts of the bay which bears his name, and sailed for some distance up Lancaster 

 Sound. For half a century more no other man went further north or as far west as he ^ 



In 1741 Bering, having previously explored along the Arctic coasts of Kamchatka 

 and in the sea named from him, tried to go still further north and east, with the hope 

 of making the north-west passage from the west. He never saw the strait which bears 

 his name, which had been discovered by Deschnew almost a century before. Al- 

 though Bering touched upon the Arctic coast of America, he does not properly come 

 within the category of American Arctic explorers.^ 



In 1743 the British Parliament offered a reward of £20,000 to the crew of the ves- 

 sel which should first make the north-west passage, and between 1769 and 1772 

 Samuel Hearne made three overland journeys from Hudson's Bay toward the north. 

 He discovered the Coppermine River, which he traced to its mouth in a gulf of the Polar 

 Sea, almost midway between Bering's Strait and Baffin's Bay. The Parliamentary 

 reward had been so far extended as to include any northern passage, and an additional 

 reward of £5,000 was offered to any crew which should go within one degree of the 

 North pole. 



Hitherto the hope of finding a passage for commerce had been the main incentive to 

 Arctic voyagers; but now this had been shown to be out of the question ; and there- 

 after scientific discovery became the main object. Capt. Phipps, afterward Lord Mul- 

 grave, in 1773, tried to reach the pole by way of Spitzbergen. He went as far north 

 as 80° 48^ no further than Hudson had gone more than sixty years before. In 1778 

 Cook attempted the route by way of Bering's Strait, and so confident was he of success 

 that a vessel was sent to Baffin's Bay to meet him. He however went no farther 

 north than 70^ 45', passing the extreme northern point of the American Continent, and 

 entering the Polar Sea. He saw, or thought he saw land still further north ; other 

 navigators have seen similar appearances of land ; but it is not as yet certain how far to 

 the west the great Polar archipelago extends. He headed eastward, but soon found 

 his way blocked by solid ice. In August he turned southward, and in Februaiy, 

 1779, was killed on the island of Hawaii.** 



IP. 342. 2 p. 343. 3P. 197, 218. 4 p. 344. 



