2()(i
JIISTOllY OF INDIA.
[Book I.
A.I) 1.0(17
Henry Hudson
South-west passage.
would here be out of place, as they throw no new hght on the attempted north- east passage to India. Suffice it to say, that, after wintering on the shore of Nova Zembla, he was obhged, in tlie June of the following year, to leave his ship embedded in the ice, and set out, with tlie survivors of his crew, to make the voyage homewards in two small boats. Anxiety, fatigue, and the severities of the climate had destroyed liis health, and he died by the way. His companioiLS, after enduring almost unparalleled hardships, reached Kola, where, to their astonishment and delight, they found the other vessel from which they had Vjeen so long parted, and proceeded in it to Amsterdam.
The existence of a north-east passage was now virtually disproved; and though subsequent explorations took place, particularly by the celebrated navi- gator, Henry Hudson, who was employed for this purpose on one occasion by the English, and on another by the Dutch, it is unnecessary to trace them. All reasonable men were now satisfied that no north-east passage to India, prac- tically available for the ordinary purposes of commerce, existed ; and the only choice now remaining was between the old beaten track of the Portuguese by the Cape of Good Hope, and a south-west passage by the southern extremity of the American continent. Of the latter passage a brief account must now be
given.
The practicability of a south-west passage to the East was proved at a com- paratively early period. Fex'nando de Magellan, or more properly MagalhaeiLS,
a native of Portugal, after serving five years in the East under Albuquerque, and distinguishing himself at the taking of Malacca, being dissatisfied with the nig- gardly maim^er in wliich his services had been rewarded, made an ofi'er of them to the Emperor Charles V. They were accepted; and he immediately presented the project of a voyage, by which he pro- posed to reach the East Indies by sailing south-west. The great object of attraction in that quarter was the Moluccas, which grew the finest spices. These were then in such high and general request, that there was no branch of the Portuguese trade of which a share was more eagerly coveted. There was one great obstacle in the way. The pope had divided the world into two halves. How could Charles, as a professed cham- pion of the church, appropriate any portion of the half which his holiness had given to the Portuguese? The true way of loosing the knot was to cut it, and
Ferdinand Magellan.— From a portrait by F. Selma.'
In Relaeion del ultimo Viage al estrecho de Magellanes, Madrid, 1787.
