NORTH POLE. 
•different routes (viz. north-eaft, north-weft, and north) 
under diftinift heads; but rather to follow the order of 
time, availing ourfelves.of the recent publication of Mr. 
Barrow, entitled “ A Chronological Hiftory of Voyages 
into the Anftic Regions 5” from which we {hall make 
more ample extra&s than we might have thought julti- 
ftable had we confidered it as a work publilhed with a 
view to profit; but, emanating from one of the fecretaries 
of the admiralty, we regard it as in forne degree an_ offi¬ 
cial production, and as intended for the benefit of the 
public in general. 
It is a curious circumftance, that all the great geogra¬ 
phical difcoveries achieved in modern times have origi¬ 
nated in the attempts to find out a fhort route to India, 
the land of wealth and brilliant promife. Columbus, 
deceived with regard to its real pofition, fought to abridge 
the length of the voyage, by holding a wefterly courfe; 
and thus difcovered, for Spain, the American archipelago; 
and the Portuguefe navigators, in one of their firft vifits 
to India, having, to avoid the dangers of failing along 
the ftiores of the African continent, taken a wider com- 
pafs, were carried by the trade-winds to the coaft of the 
Brazils. 
The other maritime powers of Europe now {trained 
every effort to reach India by the north. The French 
may almoft be faid to be the only maritime people of 
Europe w'ho have feen with apparent indifference the 
exertions made by other nations for the difcovery of a 
paffage to India, either by the north-eaft or the north- 
weft. Yet they very early availed themfelves of the dif¬ 
coveries of others: for we find the Normans and Bre¬ 
tons, at the commencement of the fixteenth century, 
frequenting the banks of Newfoundland for the purpofe 
offifliing; and one of their navigators, named Aubert, 
or Hubert, failed from Dieppe in 1508, in a {hip called 
the Penfee, with the view, as it would feem, to examine 
the ftiores of Newfoundland, from whence he brought 
back to Paris one of the natives ; but it does not appear 
that any further difcovery was the objefit of this voyage. 
Perhaps, however, the expedition of Jacques Cartier in 
1534, under the aufpices of Francis I. might be called a 
voyage of difcovery, undertaken with the view of finding 
a ftiort route to thofe countries from which Spain derived 
fo much wealth. The difcovery he a&ually made, or 
at leaft claimed, was that of the gulf and river of St. 
Lawrence; though there can be little doubt that Cortereal 
preceded him, and indeed it is generally fuppofed that 
even Velafco had been before him. 
The fubfequent voyages of Roberval and of the mar¬ 
quis de la Roche had no other objefit of difcovery than 
that of gold, or of finding out a defirable lpot to eftablifti 
a colony on the coaft of America; and, though they con¬ 
tain many very curious and interefting tranlaftions with 
the native Indians, they come not within the fcope of 
the prefent article, which is meant to be confined to 
the more northern regions. We haften, therefore, to 
thofe brilliant periods of early Englilh enterprife, fo 
'confpicuoufly difplayed in every quarter of the globe ; 
but in none, probably, to greater advantage, than in 
thole bold and perfevering efforts to pierce through 
frozen feas, in their little {lender barks of the mod mifer- 
able defcription, ill provided with the means either of 
comfort or fafety, without charts or inftruments, or any 
previous knowledge of the cold and inhofpitable regions 
through which they had to force and to feel their way ; 
their veflels often befet amidft endlefs fields of ice, and 
threatened to be overwhelmed with inftant deftrufition 
from the rapid whirling and burfting of thofe huge float¬ 
ing maffes known by the name of ice-bergs : yet, fo 
powerfully infufed into the minds of Britops was the 
fipirit of enterprife, that fome of the ableft, the moll 
learned, and mod fefpeftable, men of the times, not only 
lent their countenance and fupport to expeditions fitted 
out for the difcovery of new lands, but ftrove eagerly, in 
1 
159 
their own perfons, to (hare in the glory and the danger 
of every daring adventure. 
The firft enterprife undertaken folely by Englifhmen, 
of which we have any record, was at the fuggeftion of 
Mafter Robert Thorne, of Briftol, who is (aid to have ex¬ 
horted king Henry VIII. “ with very weighty and fub- 
ftantial reafons, to fet forth a difcovcrie even to the North 
Pole ;” which voyage, as would appear from the Chronicles 
of Hall and Grafton, actually took place ; for they inform 
us that “ King Henry VIII. fent two faire (hips, well 
manned and victualled, having in them divers cunning 
men, to feek ftrange regions; and fo they fet forth out of 
the Thames the 20th day of May, in the 19th yeere of 
his raigne, which was the yere of our Lord a 527.”' 
Hakluyt took great pains to difcover who-thefe cun¬ 
ning men were; but all he could learn was, that one 
of the (hips was called the Dominus Vobifcum ; and that 
a canon of St. Paul’s, in London, a great mathematician 
and w'ealthy man, went therein himfelf in perfon ; that, 
having failed very far north-weftward, one of the fhips 
was caft away on entering into a dangerous gulf, about 
the great opening between the north of Newfoundland 
and Meta Incognita, or Greenland, and the other returned 
home about the beginning October : “ and this,” fays 
Flakluyt, “ is all that I can hitherto learne or finde out 
of this voyage, by reafon of the great negligence of the 
writers of thofe times, who fhould have ufed more care 
in preferving of the memories of the worthy aftes of oar 
nation.” Hakluyt, vol. iii. 
The next voyage mentioned by Hakluyt, “ was fet 
forth by Mafter Hore, of London, a man of goodly ftature 
and of great courage, and given to the ftudie of cofmo- 
graphie.” Afiifted by the king’s favour, feveral gentle¬ 
men were encouraged to accqmpany him in a voyage of 
difcovery upon the north-weft parts of America, many 
of whom were of the inns of court and of chancery; 
“ and divers others of good worftiip, defirous to fee the 
ftrange things of the world. The whole number that 
went in the two tall {hips theTrinitie and the Minion, 
were about fixe-fcore perfons, whereof thirty were gen¬ 
tlemen, which were all muftered in warlike manner at 
Gravefend; and, after the receiving of the facrament, 
they embarked themfelves in the ende of April], 1536.” 
After a tedious pafiage of two months, they reached in 
fafety Cape Breton; and, fhapinga courfe from thence to 
the north-eaft, came to Penguin-iftand, “ very full of 
rocks and (tones, whereon they went, and found it full 
of great foules, white and gray, as big as geefe ; and they 
faw infinite numbers of their egges.” Thefe birds they 
ficinned, and found to be good and nourifhing meat; and 
the great (tore of bears, both black and white, was no 
mean refource, and, as we are told, no bad food. 
Mr. Oliver Dawbeney, merchant of London, who was 
one of the adventurers on-board the Minion, related to 
Mr. Richard Hakluyt the following curious circumftances 
concerning this early voyage: “That, after theirarrivall 
in Newfoundland, and having bene there certaine dayes 
at ancre, and not having yet feene any of the natural! 
people of the countrey, the fame Dawbeney, walking one 
day upon the hatches, fpied a boate with favages of thofe 
parts, rowing downe the bay toward them, to gaze upon 
the (hip and our people ; and, taking vewe of their com- 
rning aloofe, he called to fuch as were under the hatches, 
and willed them to come up if they would fee the natural 
people of the countrey, that they had fo long and fo much 
defired to fee: whereupon they came up, and tooke vievve 
of the favages rowing towards them and their {hip, and 
upon the viewe they manned out a (hip-boat to meet 
them and to take them. But they, fpying our (hip-boat 
making towards them, returned with maine force, and 
fled into an ifland that lay up in the bay or river there, 
and our men purfued them into the ifland, and the favages 
fledde and efcaped; but our men found a fire, and tfits' - 
fide of a beare on a wooden fpit, left at the fame ’»/ the 
favages 
