EXPEDITION OF DAVIS. 
oa 
was the avowee) object of the expedition of Davis' he arrived at 
Greenland, at the latter end of the month of July, and at the latter 
end of August, in the finest season of the year, happening to meet 
with some thick mists, and contrary winds, he determines to 
return home, and arrives at Dartmouth on the 30th September, 
after an absence of little more than three months from England. 
As an intrepid seaman, Davis is entitled to the highest praise, 
but there are other and higher qualities requisite, in order to form 
the character of the commander of an expedition, the principal 
aim of which is discovery, and especially the discovery of so 
difficult an object, as that of a north west passage. On his return 
to England, Davis expressed his firm belief of a free and uninter^ 
rupted passage to the westward, although his belief, from thf 
extent of his discovery, must have had nothing but mere conjec¬ 
ture for its foundation. It must be evident from the latitude 
which he reached, compared with that of subsequent navigators, 
that he could not have been warranted in drawing his com 
elusions of the positive existence of a north west passage, from 
any knowledge, which he had acquired of the geography of 
the country, or from any information, which he had obtained 
from an intercourse with the natives. In one instance he 
founded his belief of having actually discovered the long-sought 
passage, from the simple circumstance, of the colour of the sea, 
in the strait up which he sailed, resembling that of the main 
ocean ; and this alone is sufficient to prove the insufficiency and 
weakness of the reasons, which he alleged for the existence 
of a communication in that particular quarter, between the 
Atlantic and Pacific. 
From the favorable reports however which Davis made, and 
particularly of the great lucrative advantages which would arise ? 
by establishing a brisk commerce with the natives, in peltry 
the London merchants were encouraged to fit out another expedi¬ 
tion, and on the 7th May, 1586, he again sailed from Dartmouth, 
and directed his course as before to Greenland, where he arrived 
at the latter end of June. This voyage appears in some respects, 
to have been attended with a commercial aim, for Davis describes, 
that the natives came off to him in great numbers, to trade with 
