Greenland, the Adjacent Seas, and the North-West Passage to the Pacific Ocean, Illustrated in a Voyage to Davis's Strait, During the Summer of 1817; W

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1818 Excerpt: ... 218 CHAPTER VII. OF THE ATTEMPTS WHICH HAVE BEEN MADE TO DISCOVER A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. SO early, it appears, was this subject of navigating the arctic seas entertained, with an expectation of obtaining an intercourse with India in that direction, east or west, that in the year 901, Alfred the Great is said to have engaged a mariner named Other, a native of Heligoland, to survey the coasts of Norway and Lapland, and to discover if any opening in a north-east direction would admit of a passage to India on that side. The navigator above-mentioned, on his return, gave the monarch an account of the Norwegian and Lapland countries, and of the inhabitants, who subsisted by fishing and killing whales. A subsequent inquiry during the reign of the same prince confirmed the accuracy of Other's account. In the year 1497, John Cabot, a native of Venice, fired with a desire to imitate the example of Columbus, and encouraged by the merchants of Bristol, where he then resided, made an application to the King (Henry VII.) to be permitted to make a voyage of discovery across the Atlantic Ocean. His request was readily complied with, and letters patent furnished him, but enjoining strictly a return to the port of Bristol. That enterprising navigator accordingly set sail; and he appears to have been the original projector of the north-west passage, after the example of Columbus, who, in a similar attempt at a southern latitude, had made his grand discovery of America. Cabot, inferring from the accounts of Columbus, that a probability might exist of the ocean being open to the northward, directed his course to the north-westward in this expectation; and on the 24th of June discovered Newfoundland, which he named Prima Vista or First-seen-land. Still actuated by his original in...