Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/705

ARCTIC DISCOVERY GG9 ing in nothing but disaster to the adventurers and loss of life. This was in 1500-1502. In 1553 Sir Hugh Willoughby was sent out by the Muscovy company to find a northeast passage to Cathay and India. He penetrated to Nova Zembla, but was driven back by the ice as far as the mouth of the Arzina in Lapland, where he and his crew perished. In 1576-'8 Martin Frobisher made three voyages to the north- west. He discovered the entrance to Hudson and Frobisher straits leading into Hudson bay. These were the first voyages on which we hear of scientific investigations being made. In 1578 Sir Humphrey Gilbert, a relative of Sir Walter Raleigh, received authority to make a voyage of discovery on the American conti- nent ; but this, too, was practically without result. Next followed (1585-'7) Davis, who made more important accessions to a knowl- edge of the polar sea than any of his predeces- sors. He first fairly discovered the strait which bears his name, and surveyed portions of the coast of Greenland. These and other naviga- tors, Danes, French, and Dutch, were stimulat- ed to energetic efforts for finding a northern passage to India, in great part because Spain, then in her glory and power, monopolized the traffic across the Atlantic and Indian oceans, and dealt summarily with all intruders. The Dutch persevered in their search for a north- east passage. William Barentz made three voyages in this direction, 1594-'6. He and his crew suffered much, and, so far as the prime object of their expedition was concerned, ac- complished nothing material. Barentz himself perished on the third voyage, when his crew were in boats near the Icy cape, a headland of Nova Zembla in the Arctic ocean. Henry Hudson set out in 1607, under the auspices of the Muscovy company, with orders to steer directly toward the north pole. He advanced beyond lat. 80, steering due north between Greenland and Spitzbergen, and returned con- vinced that a passage in that direction was im- possible. The following year (1608) he tried to discover a northeast passage to India, between Nova Zembla and Spitzbergen. He pushed forward as far as lat. 75, and returned the same year. The next year he tried again, but, finding his way impeded by ice, returned and sailed westward, and, searching along the American coast for a passageway, discovered the bay of New York and the river which bears his name. In 1610 Hudson set sail upon a fourth expedition. He sailed up the strait named after him into the mouth of Hudson bay, penetrating several hundred miles further to the west than any one had ever gone before. The expedition wintered on one of the islands in the mouth of the bay. Their progress in the spring was beset with storms, the provisions gave out, the crew mutinied, and finally a por- tion of the mutineers returned to England with- out Hudson, whom they set adrift to perish. It was now supposed that Hudson bay was a great outlet into the Pacific waters, and san- guine expectations were entertained that here would be found the desired northwest passage. Within the next five years several expeditions were made into Hudson bay ; and two impor- tant channels, Fox channel and Sir Thomas Rowe's Welcome, were partially explored. In 1616 Baffin explored the bay called after him, even entering the mouth of Lancaster sound. Baffin's survey was very exact, and for upward of 50 years after his explorations no navigator penetrated beyond him. Meantime, however, the Russians were seeking, by overland expedi- tions through Siberia, and by vessels through Behring strait, to establish the practicability of a passage to the northeast. On one of these expeditions the extreme variation of the mag- netic needle was first closely remarked. In 1741 Behring set sail with an expedition from the harbor of St. Peter and St. Paul (Petropav- lovsk) in Kamtchatka. After various buffet- ings before severe gales, having twice made the American coast and been driven off to sea, Behring died ; the vessels were wrecked ; the crews wintered on an island known as Behring island, built a small vessel the following spring, and finally reached Kamtchatka Aug. 25, 1742. Only a bare mention can be made of the ex- peditions of Shalaroff (1760), who perished of starvation with all his crew ; of Andreyeff ; and of Capt. Billings, who started from the mouth of the Kolyma in Siberia. None of these resulted in important additions to the stock of geographical knowledge; and so we come to the last of the Russian efforts the sledge expeditions of Von Wrangell and Anjou, in 1820-'23. These explorers penetrated to lat. 70 51' N., Ion. 157 25' W., and reported an open sea in the distant north, which pre- cluded further operations with sledges. The natives whom they met at various points spoke of land still further north, but they did not see it. Hudson bay* was yet considered a great outlet toward the northwest, and in 1743 the British parliament offered a reward of 20,000 to the crew who should accomplish a northwest passage through it. Between 1769 and 1772 Samuel Hearne made three overland journeys north toward the polar sea. In the third he discovered and traced to its mouth the Coppermine river. From this time forth the arctic explorations were no longer merely for purposes of advantaging commerce, but in great part for scientific objects. In 1773 Capt. Phipps (Lord Mulgrave) was sent out with in- structions to reach the north pole. Sailing along the shores of Spitzbergen, he reached lat. 80 48' about as far north as Hudson had gone. In 1776 Capt. Cook sailed on his last expedition, with instructions to attempt the polar sea by way of Behring strait. He penetrated only to lat. 70 45'. A vessel was despatched to Baffin bay to await him, but the ice formed a solid barrier across his path. Previous to Cook's expedition the conditions of the par- liamentary reward had been extended so as to include any northern passage for ships, and an