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shore, except two who were drowned in the pinnace, and all the bread, powder, and provisions then in that boat were spoiled or lost. After the ship had gone to pieces, this loss was amply repaid, as several casks of flour, butter, beef and pork were driven on shore, with spars and other articles, sufficient for making tents and for fuel. No human inhabitants made their appearance, but a great white bear seized hold of the gunner, who, by giving immediate alarm, was saved from his jaws, and the bear killed.

They remained on shore nine days, in a situation of the greatest anxiety, and but ill provided with provisions, ammunition, and clothing; and without seeing any thing of the Prosperous on account of the foggy weather. At the end of this period it was proposed to set out by land towards Waigatz, in the hope of meeting with some Russian vessel to transport them to the continent; when, just at this time, to their unspeakable joy, they espied, on the 8th July, the Prosperous, on which they made a great fire to point out their situation; and on the same day the whole got safely on board that ship. It is not difficult to foresee what would have been the consequences to the whole party had they proceeded; for, as the boat could not carry above thirty men, and there were sixty-six in the whole, "this," Wood observes, "occasioned no small discontent among us, every one challenging the same right with the others; all I could do in

this exigency was to let the brandy-bottle go round, which kept them always fox'd, till the 8th July (the ninth day after we had been on shore) Captain Flawes came so seasonably to our relief." From this time the journal is continued by Captain Flawes; but as it contains only the courses steered and the distances run in the homeward voyage, it is unnecessary to take any further notice of it.

Captain Wood, having thus lost his ship without making the smallest advancement of new discovery, and without having approached by many degrees, either in latitude or longitude, the points already reached by former navigators, boldly decides that he was led into error by following the opinion of William Barentz; that all the Dutch and English relations were false; that Nova Zembla and Greenland (Spitzbergen) are one and the same continent; and that it is unknown hitherto whether Nova Zembla be an isle or adjoining to the continent of Great Tartary. “In justice, however," says Daines Barrington, "to the memories of both English and Dutch navigators, I cannot but take notice of these very peremptory and ill-founded reflections made by Wood, and which seem to be dictated merely by his disappointment in not being able to effect his dis

covery.

From a memorandum in Evelyn's Diary, recently

* Possibility of approaching the North Pole.

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published, it would appear that in the same year that Wood proceeded to the north-east, a Captain Baker had been sent on a voyage of discovery to the north-west, though no voyage of the kind can be traced in that year, either at the instance of the public, or of private adventurers; certainly none but that of the Speedwell was fitted out by the Admiralty. The minute in the diary therefore most probably alludes to the voyage of Wood; and if so, it contains mistakes very unusual to a man of Evelyn's character for sound intelligence and strict accuracy. He says, " 1676, July 26, I dined at the Admiralty with Secretary Pepys, and supped at the Lord Chamberlain's. Here was

Captain Baker, who had been lately on the attempt of the north-west passage. He reported prodigious depth of ice, blue as a sapphire, and as transparent. The thick mists were their chiefe impediment and cause of their return. ""*

There can be little doubt that this odd jumble of mistakes, in the date, names, and objects, was meant to refer to Wood's failure, which, to use the words of a learned writer, "seems to have closed the long list of unfortunate northern expeditions in that century; and the discovery, if not absolutely despaired of, by being so often missed, ceased for many years to be sought for."†

* Memoirs of Evelyn, &c.-Diary, July 26th, 1676. + Introduction to Cook's last Voyage by Doctor Douglas, p. 28.

CHAPTER IV.

DISCOVERIES IN THE NORTHERN REGIONS DURING

THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

Knight, Barlow, Vaughan, and Scroggs-Middleton and Moor-Moor and Smith-Hearne-Phipps-Cook and Clerke-Pickersgill—Young-Duncan-Lowenorn and

Egede-Mackenzie.

JAMES KNIGHT, GEORGE BARLOW, DAVID VAUGHAN, AND JOHN SCROGGS. 1719 to 1722.

Or the unfortunate voyage, undertaken by KNIGHT, BARLOW, and VAUGHAN, very little was ever collected, as the two ships sent out upon it were lost and the whole of their crews perished. MR. KNIGHT, with whom it originated, had been long in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company, and was ultimately appointed Governor of the factory established on Nelson's River. In his communications with the native Indians he had learned, that at some distance to the northward, and on the banks of a navigable river or inlet, into which vessels might go from the bay, there was a rich mine of native copper. On the strength

of this information he came over to England to solicit the Company to fit out two vessels, and send them, under his command, to discover this rich mine; but the Company, for certain reasons which were construed unfavourably to the liberal views of the directors, refused to comply with the proposal of their Governor. Knight, however, did not give up his point. He plainly told them that they were obliged by their charter to make discoveries, as well as to extend their trade; that they were particularly required to search for a north-west passage through the straits of Anian to the South Sea; and that if they still refused to send him and Barlow on a voyage of discovery, he should lay his application before the ministers of the crown; and for this purpose he actually waited on one of the secretaries of state. When the Company perceived him thus resolutely bent on his project, and that his "troublesome zeal,” as Robson calls it, "might actually bring on an enquiry into the legality of their charter,"* they thought it necessary to comply, and fitted out a ship and sloop called the Albany and the Discovery, the former commanded by CAPTAIN GEORGE BARLOW and the other by CAPTAIN DAVID VAUGHAN; Mr. Knight being however entrusted with the sole direction of the expedition. Perhaps they

* An Account of Six Years Residence in Hudson's Bay. By Joseph Robson, Appen. p. 37.

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