over.

place where he found no night at all, but a continual light and brightness of the sun shining clearly upon the huge and mighty sea. And having the benefit of this perpetual light for certain days, at length it pleased God to bring them into a certain great bay, which was a hundred miles, or thereabouts, Whereinto they entered, and somewhat far within it cast anchor; and looking every way about them, it happened that they espied afar off a fisher boat, which Master Chancellor, accompanied with a few of his men, went towards to commune with the fishermen that were in it, and to know of them what country it was." The unknown water which they had entered was the White Sea, and they were near the port of Archangel, whence they sometime afterwards returned to London.

The Muscovy Company sent an expedition in search of the missing vessels, but the smaller one was never seen or heard of after she disappeared in the storm. In the spring of 1554, some Russian fishermen found the unfortunate Sir Hugh Willoughby and his crew, all frozen to death, at the mouth of the river Arzina, on the coast of Lapland. The commander had written a journal of the occurrences subsequent to the storm, which was brought down to about the 5th of October; and also his will, the date and attesting signatures of which show that he and most of his crew were living at the beginning of the following year. We learn from the journal that the adventurers saw no land until the 14th of August, when they had reached the seventy-second parallel, and calculated that they were a hundred and sixty leagues north-east from the island of Seynam. The land seen must have been Nova Zembla, till then unknown. The water off the coast was so shallow, and there was so much drift ice about, that the shore could not be reached; and the explorers sailed on until the 23rd, when land was seen again. They sailed along this coast, which was low,

Journal of Sir Hugh Willoughby.

25

until the 4th of September, when they lost sight of the land, and did not see it again until the 8th.

They were now off the coast of Lapland, and on the 14th "we went ashore with our boat," says Willoughby, " and found two or three good harbours, the land being rocky and high; but as for people we could see none. The 15th we ran still along the coast, until the 17th; when the wind being contrary unto us, we thought it best to return to the harbour we had found before, howbeit we could not accomplish our desire that day. The next day, being the 18th of September, we entered the haven, and there came to anchor in six fathoms. This haven runneth into the main about two leagues, and is in breadth half a league, wherein were very many seal fishes, and other great fishes; and upon the main we saw bears, great deer, foxes, with divers strange beasts, which were to us unknown, and also wonderful. Thus remaining in this haven the space of a week, seeing the year far spent, and also very evil weather, as frost, snow, and hail, as though it had been the depth of winter, we thought it best to winter there. Wherefore we sent out three men s.s.w., to search if they could find people, who went three days' journey, but could find none. After that we sent other three westward four days' journey, which also returned without finding any people. Then sent we three men south-east three days' journey, who in like sort returned without finding people, or any similitude of habitations."

With these words the journal of Sir Hugh Willoughby ends.

THE THREE VOYAGES OF MARTIN FROBISHER-FATE OF SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT-EXPLORATIONS OF JOHN DAVIS.

HE loss of two vessels, and the sad fate of Sir Hugh Willoughby and his crew, and the unfortunate people lost in the smaller bark, did not deter the Muscovy Company from pursuing the idea of a north-eastern route to China and India. In 1556, Stephen Burrough, who had been Chancellor's chief officer, followed in the track of Willoughby, and sailed through the Kara Strait to the mouth of the Obi; and was followed by Arthur Pet, who, in a little bark of forty tons, with a crew of nine men and a boy, penetrated into the Kara Sea through the Yugor Strait. But the results of these voyages were not encouraging, in respect of the prospects of trade which they opened; and the Muscovy Company turned its attention to the development of commercial intercourse, through Russia, with the Tartars and the Persians.

The idea of a north-west passage to Asia was revived after a time, and new attempts were made to discover it. Martin Frobisher, an experienced English seaman, conceived the design of seeking the desired passage in higher latitudes than had yet been explored, and sailed from the Thames with two small vessels on the 7th of June, 1576. Instead of running