CHAPTER XV 
EARLY VOYAGES TO HUDSON'S BAY 
Knight — Hudson—Button and the North-West Company 
Sir Thomas Smith was urgent in his efforts to induce 
the Directors of the East India Company to take up the 
question of a northern passage to Cathay, but they were 
lacking in enthusiasm. At last, in July 1601, the question 
appeared on the Minutes. It was not until January 
1602, however, that the Directors were induced to pass 
a resolution that " this Company has an express interest 
in a voyage to discover a north-west passage " and that 
ships were to be got ready with all expedition. 
Two vessels, the Discovery and Godspeed, were fitted 
out and provisioned for 16 months. The command was 
given to Captain Weymouth, who sailed from Ratcliffe 
on the 2nd May, 1602. But there was a mutiny headed 
by the Chaplain, a Mr Cartwright 1 , and Weymouth was 
forced to return. At first the Directors resolved to 
make another attempt, with Weymouth in command of 
one ship, but most of the Directors were lukewarm, 
and on January 26th, 1603, it was resolved that the 
voyage should be given up. 
Sir Thomas Smith, in spite of the obstruction of his 
colleagues, continued to press the Arctic question on 
their notice, and at last succeeded in obtaining grants 
in aid. In this way an expedition was fitted out under 
the command of John Knight, an able and experienced 
seaman who had commanded the little pinnace Katten 
in the first Danish expedition to Greenland in 1605, and 
after whom Captain Hall had named the Knight Islands 2 . 
1 This reverend but mutinous gentleman had previously been in 
Persia with the Shirleys. 
2 These islands are off Cape Sophia on the Greenland coast, a fact 
that the writer has good cause to remember, as he was once aground on 
them, and in some danger. 
m. 1. 
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