17 $ 
NORTH POLE. 
the meridian. At which very inftant I o'oferved the 
funnes height, and found it 8 degrees 53 minutes north, 
in the elevation of the pole 65 degrees 20 minutes. By 
the which, working by the doCtrine of fphericall trian¬ 
gles, having the three Tides given, to wit, the complement 
of the pole’s elevation, the complement of the almecanter, 
and the complement of the funnes declination ; to find 
out the quantity of the angle at the pole : I fay, by this 
working, I found it to be 4 of the clocke, 17 minutes, 
and 24 feconds. Which, when I had done, I found by 
mine ephemerides, that the moone came to the meridian 
at London that morning at 4 of the clocke, 25 minutes, 
34feconds ; which 17 minutes 24 feconds, fubtraCted from 
25 0 34', leaveth 8° 10' of time for the difference of longi¬ 
tude betwixt the meridian of London and the meridian 
palling by this place in Greenland. Now the moone’s 
motion that day was 12 degrees 7 minutes, which, con¬ 
verted into minutes of time, W'ere48 minutes 29 feconds ; 
which, working by the rule of proportion, the vvorke 
is thus : If 48 minutes 29 feconds (the time that the 
moone commeth to the meridian fooner that day then the 
did the day before) give 360 (the whole circumference of 
the earth), what 'hall 8 minutes 10 feconds give—to wit, 
60 degrees 30 minutes, or neere thereabout 5 which is the 
difference of longitude betweenethe meridian of London 
and this place in Greenland, called Cockin’s Sound, 
lying to the vveftward of London.” Baffin admits that 
the operation is fbmewhat difficult and troublefome, and 
liable to error; yet the importance of knowing the lon¬ 
gitude of places renders it, in his opinion, highly expedi¬ 
ent that mariners fliould practice fuch things; and, he 
adds, “ I know fome of the better fort which are able to 
work this and the like propofitions exactly.” Purchas, 
vol. iii. p. 832. 
From Cochin’s Sound they proceeded towards the river, 
“ where the fuppofed myne fhould be;” from which ex- 
preflion it may be conjectured that the object of the pre- 
fient voyage w r as the difcovery of gold,-and not of the 
north-welt paffage. The weather being ftormy, with the 
wind from the northward, they put into Ramelsford on 
the 21 ft of July 5 and here about forty of the favages 
came down to barter with them : “ at which time our 
mafter, James Hall, being in the boate, a favage with his 
dart Itrooke him a deadly wound upon the right fide, 
which our furgeon did thinke did peerce his liver. We 
all mufed that he ftiould ftrike him, and offer no harme 
to any of the reft: unleffe it were, that they knew he was 
there with the Danes ; for out of that river they carried 
away five of the people, whereof never any returned 
againe ; and in the next river they killed a great number. 
All that day he lay very fore pained, looking for death 
every houre; and on Thurfday the three and twentieth, 
about eight of the clocke in the morning, he dyed, being 
very penitent for all his former offences.” 
Having buried the mafter, they proceeded to the north¬ 
ward, and entered Cunningham’s River, where they 
“ found divers places where the Danes had digged ; it 
was a kinde of (fining ftone, which, when our goldfmith, 
James Carlile, had tried, it was found of no value, and 
had no mettall at all in it; but was like unto Mufcovie 
ftudde, and of a glittering colour.” From hence they 
proceeded to Ramelsford, which lies in lat. 67. Here 
the new mafter, Andrew Barker, and the merchant, Mr. 
Wilkinfon, and others, held a conference about return¬ 
ing home ; becaufe, fince the murder of Hall, none of the 
favages would come near to trade with them as ufual. 
Accordingly, on the 10th of Auguft, they ftood out of 
the harbour, and on the 17th of September they arrived 
at Hull. 
In the year 1613 the Mufcovy Company fent out fix 
(hips and a pinnace to fifh on the coaft of Greenland, 
(Spitzbergen,) in one of which was the celebrated navi¬ 
gator, William Baffin ; and fo rapidly had the fame of the 
filhery fpread over the maritime nations of Europe, that 
no lels than eight Spaniards, two Dutchmen, four French¬ 
men from Dunkirk, befides fome Bifcayans, were this 
year affembled in the fea of Spitzbergen ; one of the (hips 
of Bifcay being 700 tons, and others from 200 to 300 
tons. But the Englilh, having taken poffefiion of the 
whole country in the name of his majefty, prohibited ail 
the others from filhing, and fent them away, excepting 
fuch as they were pleafed to grant leave to remain. In 
this voyage the extraordinary refraCtion of the atmofphere 
is firft noticed by Baffin, who frequently obferved a con- 
fiderable difference in the latitude of the lame place de¬ 
duced from the altitude of the fun above and from that 
below the pole. The quantity of this refraCtion he 
therefore endeavoured to afcertain by an obfervation of 
the fun when on the meridian below the pole, when one 
fifth part of his body only appeared above the horizon ; 
and the refult gave him twenty-fix minutes; “ but,” ob- 
ferves this intelligent navigator, “ I fuppofe the refraCtion 
is more or leffe according as the ayre is thicke or clear, 
which I leave for better fchollers to difcuffe.” On the 6th 
of September, all the fhips arrived fafe in the Thames, 
with a good ftore of oil and bone. 
The laft fuccefsful voyage induced the company to fend 
out, in 1614, ten fliips and two pinnaces, befides the 
Thomafine, intended for difcoveries, under the orders of 
Robert Fotherby. Baffin was likewile on this voyage, 
but the relation of it is given by Fotherby, and contains 
nothing deferving of particular notice. Being much 
hampered with ice, the (hip intended for difcovery got 
very little beyond the north-eaftern extremity of Spitz¬ 
bergen. 
Baffin was again, in 1615, fent on northern difcovery 
in the pinnace called the Richard, of 20 tons, but got 
no farther north than Hakluyt’s Headland ; he men¬ 
tions, however, his having marked down on a map, “how 
farre the ftate of this fea is difcovered betwixt eighty and 
feventy-one degrees of latitude ; and, with regard to the 
probability ofa paffage by the pole,” he fays, “ for as much 
as it appears not yet to the contrarie but that there is a 
fpacious fea betwixt Greenland and King James his New 
Land, (Spitzbergen,) although much peftered with icej, 
I will not Teem to diffuade this worfhipfulj companie from 
the yeerly adventuring of 150I. or 200I. at the molt, till 
fome further difcoverie be made of thefaid feas and lands 
adjacent.” 
The reafon afligned for fir Thomas Button not follow¬ 
ing up the attempt to difcover the paffage, of the exift- 
ence of which he was fo (anguine, is the death of his 
patron, prince Henry, during his abfence on the firft voy¬ 
age. But the fame (hip, the Difcovery, which had accom¬ 
panied the Relolution, was again fitted out in 1614, and 
victualled for twelve months, and the command of her 
given to captain Gibbons, the relation and friend of fir 
Thomas Button, who had been with him the preceding 
year. The high character given by fir Thomas to this 
officer as a feaman, of whom he does not hefitate to fay 
“ that lie is not fliort of any man that ever yet he carried 
to fea,” had railed great expectations from this voyage, 
which, however, were woefully dilappointed. Captain 
Gibbons had not proceeded far into Hudlon’s Strait be¬ 
fore he fell in with the ice, which came down in fuch 
quantities as to hamper him very conliderably. The 
weather alfo was boifterous, cold, and foggy, which in¬ 
duced him to turn back. Some, indeed, are of opinion 
that he never reached the Strait, but was driven by the 
fouthern current and the floating ice down the coaft of 
Labrador, where he took Ihelter in a bay lying in about 
57 0 , in which he remained nearly five months, completely 
blocked up by the ice. To this fpot his (nip’s company- 
are faid to have given, in derifion, the name of Gibbons 
bis Hole. Efcaping at length, with confiderable damage 
to his (hip, he made the belt of his way home. The bay 
in w’hich he was thus caught appears to be that now called 
Nain, at the head of which there is an eftablilkment of 
Moravian miflionaries. 
The total failure of Gibbons, notwithftanding the high 
character 
