54 
EXPEDITION OF BYLOT. 
attempted, and for ought I here, little, or rather I may bouldlye 
saye noe advauncement given to the busines; therefore there 
cannot be too much curiositie used, to put it into a good and 
choise hand; which I will heartilye praye may be most happilye 
lighted on; for wee live not in the adge to fynde, that they are 
the most perfitt, which makes the gloriosts she we. 
In consequence of these sanguine expectations entertained by 
Sir Thomas Button, his relation Capt. Gibbons, was despatched 
in 1614 in the Discovery, in search of the north west passage, 
but he encountered so many impediments, arising from adverse 
winds, fogs, and ice, that he returned without having made 
any discovery worthy of being recorded. 
Although every attempt to discover the north west passage, 
had hitherto failed, and attended with circumstances sufficiently 
disheartening, to deter even the most sanguine from the prosecu¬ 
tion of the enterprise ; yet it was generally admitted that our 
geographical knowledge had been considerably enlarged, and 
that a channel had been opened for the establishment of a 
particular branch of commerce, which had hitherto in a great 
degree, been confined to our intercourse with the Russian ports. 
The merchants of London perceived that a wide field was open 
for their commercial operations, in trafficing with the natives of 
the northern countries of America for their peltry; and with the 
ulterior view of establishing that commerce, and enlarging our 
geographical knowledge of the countries bordering on the strait, 
which was known by the name of Hudson’s Strait, keeping at 
the same time the discovery of the north west passage, as one of 
the principal objects in view; they determined to fit out the ship 
Discovery, for a fourth voyage, giving the command of her to 
the uneducated By lot, but fortunately appointing William Baffin 
as his mate. 
This expedition sailed in 1615, but the result by no means an¬ 
swered the expectations of the projectorsof it; indeed in a geogra¬ 
phical point of view, a very slight addition was made to the know¬ 
ledge which previously existed, although it should be mentioned 
that it is the first voyage on record, in which a method is laid 
down for determining the longitude at sea, by an observation of 
