181 
NORTH P O LE. 
given to an experienced Teaman of the name of Jens Monk. 
The vefiels, it would Teem, were chiefly manned with 
Englifh Tailors, who no doubt had been employed on 
fome of the former expeditions for making difcoveries, or 
on the whale-fifhery. Munk left Elfineur on the 18th of 
May, and on the 20th of June made Cape Farewell, and 
endeavoured to Hand up Davis’s Strait, with the inten¬ 
tion, as it would Teem, of purfuing the track of Baffin 
and Bylot ; but he found his vefiels To perpetually ham¬ 
pered with ice, that he returned along the coal! to the 
i'outhern extremity, from whence he pafied through Hud- 
Ton’s Strait, the name of which he thought fit to change 
to that of Fretum Chriftiani, or Chriltian’s Strait. The 
northern part of what is called Hud Ton’s Bay he con¬ 
verted into Blare Novum , the New Sea; and the fouthern 
and eaftern Tide he changed into Blare Chriftianum, Chrif- 
tian’s Sea ; and either he, or the publifher of his voyage, 
has accompanied it with a chart, in which the whole geo¬ 
graphy of Hudfon’s Sea and its iflands is upfet and dif- 
torted. Pie made the coaft of America in 63. 20. where, 
meeting with much ice, he was compelled to feek for 
Ihelter in an opening in the land, wdrich he called Blank's 
Winter Harbour; and to the furrounding country he 
gave the name of New Denmark. This harbour mull: be 
that which has fince been named Chefterfield or Bowden's 
Inlet. The year being far advanced, (having entered the 
harbour on the 7th of September,) and Teeing no likeli¬ 
hood of being able to crofs Hudfon’s Sea and Strait, he 
rook the precaution of fir If hutting himfelf and his people, 
and then exploring the neighbouring county, which 
luckily afforded them a plentiful frock of game, confid¬ 
ing of white bears, black foxes, hares ; partridges, and 
other birds. On the 27th of November there appeared 
in the heaven three diftinffs funs ; and again two, equally 
diftinfit, on the 24th of January. On the 18th of the 
preceding December, there was an eclipfe of the moon ; 
and at night this luminary was environed by a tranfpa.- 
rent circle, within which U'as a crofs, cutting through 
the centre of the moon, and quartering it. This'pheno- 
menon was regarded as the harbinger of thofe misfortunes 
which Toon befel them. The froft had fet in with fuch 
f'everity, that the wine, brandy, and beer, were entirely 
frozen, and the caflcs burft with the intenfe cold. The 
feurvy began to make its appearance among the crews of 
the two vefiels, confifling of forty-eight perfons in the 
one, arid fixteen in the other. The fpring of the year 
brought with it no relief to their mifery. Their bread 
and provifions were exhaufled, and none of them had 
llrength enough to take any of the ducks, geefe, par¬ 
tridges, and other fowl, which came around them in in¬ 
finite multitudes. They w'ere reduced to a moff helplefs 
and deplorable ftate, and the mortality became almofi ge¬ 
neral. Towards the beginning of the month of Majq 
1620, thofe who had furvived had the mifery of knowing 
that the whole of their provifions were confumed, and 
that famine was now added to difeafe. They had no 
llrength left to purfue the animals which furrounded 
them. Munk himfelf, reduced to the laft extremity, re¬ 
mained alone in a little hut, in To hopelefsand defponding 
a ftate, as to expefit nothing but death. At length, how¬ 
ever, preifed by hunger, he had the refolution to crawd 
out of his hovel, and inquire into the fate of his unhappy 
companions; he found only two alive, all the reft having 
perilhed. Thefe three men encouraged each other to 
make an attempt to procure fome fpecies of food ; they 
fcratched away the fribw, and found fome plants and 
roots, which they eagerly devoured. By degrees they 
were able to take fiftt in the river, as the ice difappeared, 
birds, and other animals. They now thought of getting 
home, and for this purpofe equipped the little veflel from 
the (lores in the large one ; they re-pafied Hudfon’s Strait, 
and, after a ftormy pafiage, in w hich the (hip was almoft 
abandoned to herfelf, they arrived fafely in a port of 
Norway on the 25th of September, 1620; and were re¬ 
ceived in Denmark as men rifen from the grave. 
Vol. XVII. No. 1170. 
The laft voyage of Baffin and Bylot in 1616, which, 
from its uninterrupted northern progrefs, might have 
been expefited to raife the hopes of the adventurers and 
of the nation, for a fuccefsful iffue of the oft-attempted 
pafiage, would feem, on the contrary, to have call a damp 
over the minds of its moft (anguine advocates ; with the 
exception of one attempt, under the direction ofaperfon 
of the name of Hawkridge, who (ailed with fir Thomas 
Button, the project Teems to have been entirely given up. 
It is fcarcely known under whole employ, in what (hip, 
or even in what year, captain Hawkridge failed on this 
expedition. From the meagre fragment of the voyage as 
given by Fox, which, he lays, he procured “ in manu- 
feript or by relation,” it is evident at lead that he added 
nothing to former difcoveries in the north-weft. 
The revival of an attempt todifeovera north-weft -pa(/'age 
is unqueftionably owing to Capt. Luke Fox, who, by his 
own account, had continued with unabated zeal to urge a 
new expedition, for exploring the arfilic Teas ; which, he 
fays, “ he had been itching after ever fince 1606, when he 
w'ilhed to have gone as mate to John Knight.” Fie fuc- 
ceeded at length in perfuading Mr. Henry Briggs and fir 
John Brooke to petition his majefty Charles I. for the _ 
loan of one of his (hips, and for his countenance of the 
voyage; who, we are told, “ gracioufiy accepted and 
granted both.” Fox fays he was allowed to choofe his 
own (hip ; and that he pitched on a pinnace of the bur¬ 
den of 80 tons, which was named the Charles, manned 
y.'ith twenty men and two boys, victualled for eighteen 
months, and well fitted in every refpefit. Sir Thomas 
Roe and fir John Wolftenholme were appointed to fu- 
perintend the fitting out of this enterprife, and the mafter 
and wardens of the Trinity Houfe were ordered to give 
their aftiftance. The narrative of the voyage is written 
by Fox himfelf, who affefitedly afiumes the name of the 
North-weft . Fox. Fie was a keen fhrewd Yorkfhiremrtn, 
and evidently a man of confiderable talent, but conceited 
beyond meafure; and the ftyle of his journal is To un¬ 
couth, and the jargon fo obfeure and comical, as in many 
places to be fcarcely intelligible. “ Gentle reader,” he 
thus begins, “ expeCt not heere any fiorifhing phrafes or 
eloquent tearmes ; for this child of mine, begot in the 
north-weft’s cold clime, (where they breed no fchollers,) 
is not able to digeft the Tweet milke of rhetorick,” fire. 
Fie leaves England, however, highly fatisfied both with 
himfelf and with his equipment. “ I was victualled,” 
fays he, “ compleatly for eighteen rnoneths ; but, whether 
the baker, brewer, butcher, and others, were mailers of 
their arts or profeffions or no, I know not ; but this I 
am Cure of, I had excellent fat beefe, ftrong beere, good 
wheaten bread, good Ifeland ling, butter and cheefe of 
the beft, admirable fackeand aqua-vitae, peafe, oat-meale, 
wheat-meale, oyle, (pice, fuger, fruit, and rice; with 
chyrurgerie, as firrups, juleps, condits, trechiflis, anti¬ 
dotes, balfoms, gummes, unguents, implaiiters, oyles, 
potions, luppofitors, and purging pils, &c.” And on 
taking leave he received, he fays, from the king “ a mappe 
of all my predeceflors difcoveries, his majeity’s inftrufitions, 
with a letter to the emperour of Japan.” 
The merchants of Briftol, determined not to be out¬ 
done by thofe of London in manifefting a ipirit of enter¬ 
prife, fitted out the fame year, and for the fame objeCt, a 
(hip called the Maria, the command of which was given 
to Capt. Thomas James. 
Fox left Deptford on the 5th of May, pafied Cape Fare¬ 
well in a fog and drizzling milts on the 13 th of June, and, 
on the weather clearing, oblerved a flioal of grampufles 
following their leader, which, he tells us, brought to his 
recollection “ Mr. William Browne in his Britaines Paf- 
forals, where he writes, The tritons wafted Thetis along 
the Britifh (hores.” On the 20th he got fight of the land 
to the northward of Lumley's Inlet, the name of which 
affords matter for another recollection, namely, that o.f 
the right honourable lord Lumley, and his building the 
pier of Iiartepooi at his own colt and charge; alfo the 
3 A anfwer 
