NORTH POLE. 
m 
which they lay being 72. 45. the tide ft ill final], and the 
flood coming from the foutlnvard. The inhabitants are 
defcribed as very poor, living on feals’ fleth, which they eat 
raw, and cloathing themfelves with their Ikins. The faces 
of the women were marked with black ftreaks. They 
fieemed to worfhipthe fun, pointing conftantly to it, and 
ltroking their breafts, and callingout at the fame time II- 
youtj Men and dogs are buried in the fame manner, each 
having a heap ot ftones piled over them. 
Departing from hence, they flood away to the north¬ 
ward, between the ice and the land, being in a channel 
as it were ot feven or eight leagues wide, till they came 
to the latitude 74. 4. when they found themfelves much 
peftered with the ice; and here they dropped anchor near 
three fmall itlands, which appeared to be occafionally vi- 
fited by the people of the neighbouring coaft. They then 
tried to make their way to the weftward, but the ice was 
too firm to let them pafs; and therefore they returned to 
foipe itlands in latitude 73.45. to wait till the ice (which 
they obferved to confume very faft) fhould difappear. 
During their flay at this place, fome forty of the natives 
came in their boats, and exchanged teal’s ikins, fea-morfe 
teeth, and unicorn’s horns, for filial] pieces of iron, glafs 
beads, and fuch like. 
On the 18th, on perceiving that much of the ice had 
already wafted, they proceeded northerly; but the wea¬ 
ther was extremely cold with much fnow, and Baffin fays, 
it froze fo hard, “ that on Midfummer-day our throwds, 
roapes, and lailes, were fo frozen that we could t'carce 
handle them.” By the ift of July, being then in lati¬ 
tude 75. 40. they had got into an open fea, “ which,” fays 
Baffin, “ anew revived the hope of a paflage.” On the 
feccmd they found a fair cape or headland, which they 
named Sir Dudley Dio-ges's Cape, in latitude 76. 35. and 
twelve leagues beyond this a fair found, having an ifland 
in the midft, making two entrances. To this found they 
gave the name of Wolfienhofme Sound ; it is defcribed as 
having many inlets or fmaller founds in it, and as a fit 
place for the killing of whales. 
On the 4th, the weather being ftormy, they found them¬ 
felves embayed in a large found, in which they faw fo many 
whales that they named it Whale Sound; it lies in lati¬ 
tude 77. 30. Between two great founds was an ifland, 
which they called Ilalduyt's Ifland, and the latter found 
Sir Thomas Smith's Sound,"- which runneth to the north 
of 78 degrees ; and is admirable in one refpeft, becaufe 
in it is the greateft variation in the compafie of any part 
of the known world ; for, by divers good obfervations, I 
found it to be above five points, or fifty-fix degrees, varied 
to the weftward.” Tp a clufter of iflands Baffin gave the 
name of Carey's Iflands ; but he does not give their pofi- 
tion, obferving, that “ all which founds and iflands the 
map doth truly defcribe.” 
The wind being favourable, they flood to the fouth- 
weftw'ard, in an open fea, and with a ftifF gale of wind, 
till the 10th, when it became calm and foggy; they were 
then near the land, in the entrance of a fair found, which 
they named Alderman Jones's Sound. The boat was fent 
on-fhore, but it loon returned on account of the bad 
weather; no people were feen, but abundance of fea- 
morfes among the ice. Standing on to the weftward, 
they opened out, on the 12th, another great found in 
74. 20. which they named Sir James Lancajier's Sound. 
Here,” fays Baffin, “ our hope of paflage began to be 
leffie every day than other, for from this found to the 
i'outhward wee had a ledge of ice betweene the fhoare and 
us, but cleare to the feaward ; we kept clofe by this ledge 
of ice till the 14th day in the afternoone, by which time 
wee were in the latitude of 71. 16. and plainely perceived 
the land to the foutlnvard of 70. 30. then wee, having fo 
much ice round about us, were forced to ftand more eaft- 
ward ;” and in this direction they ran amongft the ice 
threescore leagues, nor could they approach the land till 
they came to about 68. and,..being then unable to get to 
the fhore on account of the ice, they drifted down to 
65. 40. “ Then,” fays Baffin, “ wee left off feeking to 
the weft fhoare, becaufe wee were in the indraft of Cum¬ 
berland’s Ifles, and ftiould know no certaintie, and hope 
of paflage could be none.” He adds, “ Now, feeing that 
wee had made an end of our difeovery, and the year 
being too farre fpent to goe for the bottome of the bay 
to fearch for dreft finnes, (whalebone,) therefore wee de¬ 
termined to goe for the coaft of Groneland, to fee if we 
could get fome refrefliing for our men.” Their crew, it 
feems, were very weak and fickly, one had died, and 
three were laid up in their hammocks. They therefore 
flood for the fhore, and anchored in a place called Cochin 
Sound, in latitude 65. 45. And here on a little ifland 
they found abundance of feurvy-grafs, w'hich they boiled 
in beer, and, mixing it with forrel and orpen, both very 
plentiful, made good fallads ; the men in the courfe of 
eight or nine days perfedlly recovered. They left this 
bay on the 6th of Auguft; and on the 25th of the fame 
month came in fight of the coaft of Ireland, and on the 
30th anchored fafely in Dover Road ; “ for the which,” 
fays Baffin, “ and all other his bleffings, the Lord make 
us thankful.” 
This voyage, which ought to have been, and indeed 
may Hill be, confidered as the moft interefting and im¬ 
portant either before orfince, is the moft vague, indefinite, 
and unfatisfadrory, of all others, and the account of it 
moft unlike the writing of William Baffin. In all his 
other journals, we have not only the latitude and longi¬ 
tude noted dowm, but the obfervations of the heavenly 
bodies from which they were deduced, and the arithme¬ 
tical operation inferted ; the longitude, the variation, and 
declination, of the magnetic needle; the courfes fleered, 
and a variety of particulars entered on the proper day ; 
but in this moft important voyage, purporting to have 
reached many degrees of latitude beyond any preceding 
voyage, and to have fkirted the coaft and iflands of Ame¬ 
rica, where the paflage mull have been found if it has 
any exiftence, we have neither courfe, diftance, nor va¬ 
riation of the compafs, except once, and no one longi¬ 
tude whatever ; fo vague and indefinite indeed is every 
information left, which could be ufeful, that each fuc- 
ceeding geographer has drawn Baffin’s Bay on his chart 
as bell accorded wfith his fancy. It would almoft feein as 
if Baffin was averfe from difeovery on this voyage; for 
when they had reached only the latitude 70. 20. beyond 
which even Davis had been, he conceived “ fome diflike 
of the paflage;” and the flovenly manner in which he 
runs over the numerous “ founds,” in a very high degree 
of latitude, is quite vexatious ; indeed, from the multi¬ 
tude of whales which he deferibes to choke up thole 
founds, they were perhaps nothing more than openings 
betw'een huge ice-bergs, or at any rate paflages made by 
an archipelago of iflands. Baffin is fo much aware of 
this, that in his letter to Mr. John Wolftenholme he ob- 
ferves, “ fome may objedl and alke w'hy we fought that 
coaft no better ?” to which he alleges, in anfwer, the bad- 
nefs of the weather, the lofs of anchors, the weaknefs of 
the crew, and the advanced feafon of the year. 
Purchas, however, is blatneable to a certain degree, for 
the meagrenefs of Baffin’s journal, and the fuppreffion of 
a chart which accompanied it; for he admits, in a mar¬ 
ginal note, that “ this map of the author’s for this and 
the former voyage, with the tables of his journall and 
fayling, w'ere fomewhat troublefome and too coltly to in- 
fert.” But furely, fays Dairymple, “ that valuable ori¬ 
ginal merited his attention more than the vile feraps lie 
has given from Hondius.” Mem. of a Map of the Lands 
around the North Pole. 
The difeoveries of Hudfon and Baffin once more turned 
the attention of the numbering Danes towards their loll 
colonies on the coafts of Greenland ; and perhaps held 
out to them a hope of completing the long-fought-for 
paflage in that direction to the Indies. Accordingly, in 
the year 1619, Chriltian IV. caufed twm fhips to be fitted 
out on a voyage of difeovery, the command of which was 
given 
