NORTH POLE. 
166 
to the weftward, between Frobilher’s Archipelago and 
the landnow called Cumberland's Iftand, the great number 
of whales, feals, deer-lkins, and other articles of peltry, 
jn pofleffion of the natives, which were freely offered 
by them to the crews of the Ihips, excited fuch lively 
hopes at home for the extenfion both of traffic and difco- 
very, that the merchants of Exeter, and other parts of 
the weft of England, contributed a large trading-veffel of 
120 tons, called the Mermaid, to accompany the little 
fquadron of Davis on a fecond voyage, which now con¬ 
fided of the Sunfliine, the Moonfhine, and a pinnace of 
ten tons named the North Star. 
On the 7th of May, 1586, they left Dartmouth, and on 
the 15th of June made the land about Cape Farewell; 
coafted the weft fide of Greenland, and from hence they 
had much intercourfe with the natives, who came off to 
their fliips fometimes in an “ hundred canoes at a time, 
fometimes fortie, fiftie, more and lefs as occafion ferved, 
bringing with them feale-fkinnes, ftagges-fkinnes, white 
hares, feale-fifh, famon-peale, fmal cod, dry caplin, with 
other filh, and birds, fuch as the country did yield.” 
The civility of the people induced the adventurers to exa¬ 
mine the rivers and creeks which ran up into the main 
land. They found the furface much the fame as that of the 
inoory and wafte grounds of England. The natives are 
defcribed as “of good ftature, and in body proportioned, 
withfmall flender hands and feet, with broad vilages and 
fmall eyes, wide mouths, the moft part unbearded, great 
lips, and clofe-toothed.” They are reprefented as being 
idolaters, having great ftore of images, which they wear 
about them and in their boats. They are laid to be 
witches, and to praftife many kinds of enchantments ; 
they are ftrong and nimble, fond of leaping and wreftling, 
in which they beat the beft of the crew, who were weft- 
country wreftlers. They difcovered, however, in a little 
time that thefe Greenlanders were both very thievifli and 
very mifchievous, cutting their cables and Healing every 
thing they could lay their hands on. They are laid to 
live moftly on fifli, which they eat raw; drink fait water, 
and eat grafs and ice as luxuries. 
On the 17th of July, our navigators were all alarmed 
at the appearance of “ a moft mighty and ftrange quan¬ 
tity of yce in one intire malfe, fo bigge as that we knew 
not the limits thereof.” Its fize and lhape and height are 
ftated by the writer of the voyage to be fo “ incredible, 
to be reported in trueth,” that he declines fpeaking more 
of it,, left he Ihould not be believed. They coafted this 
ice till the 30th of July, which occalioned fuch extreme 
cold, that all their Ihrouds, ropes, and fails, were frozen, 
and the air was loaded with a thick fog. The men grew 
lick and feeble, and wilhed to return ; and advifed their 
captain not, through his over-boldnefs, to leave their 
widows and fatherlefs children to give him bitter curfes. 
He, therefore, thought of ordering the Mermaid to re¬ 
main where flie was, in readinefs to return homewards, 
while with the Moonlhine he Ihould proceed round the 
ice. He difcovered land in lat. 66. 33. Ion. 70. from the 
meridian of London, “ voyd of trouble, without fno.w or 
ice.” This land turned out to be a group of illands. 
The weather was found to be very hot; and they were 
much troubled with a fly “ which is called mulkyto, for 
they did fting grievoully.” After leaving the Mermaid, 
they failed weft fifty leagues, and difcovered land in 
lat. 66.19. Turning to the fouth, they fell in with land 
north-weft from them; being a fair promontory in lat. 65. 
having no land on the fouth ; “ here,” fays Davis, “ wee 
had great hope of a thorough palfage.” From hence 
they continued to the fouthward among many illands, 
and afterwards along the coaft from the lat. 67. to 57. 
On the 28th of Auguft, they fell in with a fair harbour 
in lat. 56. and failed ten leagues into the fame, with fine 
woods on both fides. On the 4-th of September, being in 
lat. 54. Davis fays, “ he had a perfeft hope of the palfage, 
finding a mightie great lea palling between two lands- 
weft.” On this part of the coaft of Labrador two of their 
men were llain by the favages. The weather now became 
moft ftormy and tempeftuous; and on the nth of Sep-, 
tember they weighed anchor, and arrived in England in 
the beginning of Oflober. 
It Ihould be remarked that, in all this track, Davis was 
entirely alone in his little bark, the Moonlhine; he hav¬ 
ing, on his arrival off Cape Farewell, ordered the Sun- 
Ihine and the North Star to feek a palfage northward be* 
tween Greenland and Iceland as far as lat. 80. if not in* 
terrupted by land. On the 12th of June the two latter 
velfels put into Iceland, and remained there till the 16th; 
and, fteering north-weft, came, on the 3d of July, between 
two firm illands of ice. This made them turn about; and, 
coafting Greenland within three leagues olfthe land, and 
along a continued field of ice, they came on the 17th to 
the Land of Defolation, crofted over to Gilbert’s Sound, 
the appointed rendezvous, where they remained till the 
31ft; when, hearing nothing of their confort, they de¬ 
parted for England, and the Sunfliine arrived at Radcliffe 
on the 6th of October: Hie had parted from the North 
Star in a great ftorm on the 3d of September, the latter of 
which was never heard of more. 
The fecond voyage of Davis had not been attended 
with any very encouraging circumftances to the adven¬ 
turers ; but this intrepid navigator writes to his patron 
Mr. W. Sanderfon, on his arrival, in thefe terms : “ I 
have now experience of much of the north-weft part of 
the world, and have brought the palfage to that likelihood, 
as that I am allured it muft bee in one of foure places, or 
els not at all.” A third voyage was therefore determined 
on ; and the Elizabeth of Dartmouth, the Sunfliine of 
London, and the clincher Helena of London, were ap¬ 
pointed for this expedition. They failed from Dartmouth 
on the 19th of May, and on the 14th of June defcried the 
land, confifting of very high mountains covered with 
fnow. It was compofed of illands lying in lat. 64. On 
the 24th they had reached the lat. of 67. 40. and faw great 
ftore of whales. On the 30th they had clear weather; and 
found by obfervation that they were in 72. 12. and that 
the variation of the compafs was 28. W, The land along 
which they had been running, and which was the weft 
coaft of Greenland, they named the London Coaft. At 
this high latitude, finding the fea all open to the weftward 
and to the northward, and the wind Uniting to the north¬ 
ward, they left that part of the Ihore, which they called 
Hope Sanderfon, and, lhaping their courfe weft, ran forty 
leagues in that direction without meeting with any land. 
On the 2d of July, however, they fell in with a “ mightie 
bank of ice” to the weftward, among which they were 
hampered for eleven or twelve days. They then deter¬ 
mined to get near the Ihore, and wait five or fix days “ for 
the dilfolving of the ice, hoping that the fea continually 
beating it, and the l'unne, with the extreme force of heat 
which it had, always ihining upon it, would make a quicke 
difpatch, that we might have a further fearch upon the 
wellerne Ihore.” But they found the water too deep to 
come to an anchor; and, either from “ fome fault in the 
barke or the fet of fome current,” they were driven 
fix points out of their courfe, and on the 19th were 
abreaft of Mount Raleigh : from hence they ftood fixty 
leagues up the ftrait difcovered in the firft voyage, (which 
is now called Cumberland Strait ,) and anchored among 
the illands at the hottom of the gulf, to which they gave 
the name of the Earl of Cumberland's I/les. The varia¬ 
tion of the compafs was 30 degrees. The air was ex¬ 
tremely hot. They ftood out from thefe illands to the 
fouth-eaft, and palled an inlet between 63 and 62 degrees 
of latitude, which they named Lumley's Inlet, and which 
is the ftrait difcovered by Frobilher, and bearing his name. 
Palling a headland, which they called Warwick's Foreland, 
and crofting a great gulf, they fell in, on the ill of Auguft, 
with the louthernmoft cape of the gulf, to which they, 
gave the name of Cape Chidley, in lat. 61. 10. The ftrait, 
therefore, which bears the name of Hud/on on all the 
charts, was in faft difcovered by Davis; but that in which 
■ lie 
