IT T is superfluous to do more than object proposed by Columbus, both to himself and to the sovereigns to whom he offered his plans, was the opening of a passage to the Indies by a voyage over the sea to the westward; and that in the course of his navigation he reached the shores of the New World. The occupation of the islands and main of central and southern America by the Spaniards and Portuguese, precluded the other nations of Europe from following this course, and drove them to the north, where the discovery of the extensive lands, bays, and gulfs of North America rewarded their adventure, and suggested the noble idea that by reaching the northern extremity of the land, and circumnavigating the coasts, a northwestern passage to the Indies might be found, which should lay open the fabulous wealth of those regions to the commercial states of Europe. This notion was eagerly adopted, and produced a race of intrepid commanders and seamen, who underwent incredible hardships and dangers in the frozen seas to which their adventures led them, and was probably the cause of the great advance the modern nations have made in all that belongs to navigation. The dangers and losses which were incurred

in these voyages, and the failure

would probably have put a stop to further undertakings, had it not happened that our merchant adventurers discovered that these ungenial regions were productive of valuable merchandise in oils, furs, and teeth, which repaid their outfit, and incited to new attempts. Thus incessant and daring voyages were made by merchants and captains, who combined traffic with exploration, and our knowledge of those parts of the earth was enlarged by the discoveries of Hudson, Davis, Baffin, and other intrepid navigators. Nevertheless the one great prominent object of the recorded voyages to the north was undoubtedly the discovery of a north-west passage to the Indies; the motive which inspired Cabot and his self-seeking master, and the gallant English commanders who have for three centuries persevered in the attempt;-in our times, indeed, the commercial view has disappeared from the evident. inutility of such a passage should it be found to exist, and the search is persevered in for the purpose of solving a geographical problem and for scientific purposes, and also from a dogged resolution to carry through an undertaking which has become associated with English enterprise.

Many very fearful catastrophes have marked this course of exploration, without abating the desire of knowledge or the zeal of navigators. Of these, one of the best known, from the romantic circumstances attending it, is the destruction of the brave Sir Hugh Willoughby and all his crew, in the reign of Edward VI. This commander, with Richard Chancellor as his "pilot-major," set sail from Greenwich on the 20th May, 1553. His departure was a public spectacle, and he commenced his voyage amidst the greetings of the Royal Court at the palace of Greenwich where the youthful monarch was lying on his death-bed. His squadron consisted of three vessels; one of these commanded by Chancellor parted from the Admiral in a gale off the North Cape; the two remaining vessels pushed on until they reached Nova Zembla, but being there foiled in their endeavour to get further north, they turned their course along the desolate shores of Russian Lapland, and took shelter in the mouth of the Arzina, near Kegor, from whence parties were sent out to explore the country, but returned "without finding any people or any similitude of habitation." These were the last words in Sir Hugh Willoughby's Journal, which was found lying beside the frozen corpse of the Admiral, by some Russian fishermen who landed on the coast two years afterwards. The whole crew had perished, by the severity of the cold, to the number of seventy, but their stiffened corpses were collected, and, with the ships, which were found uninjured, were sent to England; there, however, they were stined never to arrive, for on the passage "they sunk with their

de

sea.

And having the benefite of this perpetuall light for certaine dayes, at the length it pleased God to bring them into a certaine great bay, which was one hundedth miles or thereabout over." This great bay was the White Sea, and by this bold adventure the great Empire of Russia became known to civilized Europe.

Thirty years afterwards Sir Humphrey Gilbert (half-brother of Sir Walter Raleigh) perished with his crew by the foundering of his ships off the coasts of Newfoundland. In 1619 Munk, a Danish navigator, penetrated into Chesterfield Inlet, where he was frozen in; his men perished fast by the scurvy; gradually their strength failed, to the extent that they could no longer kill the ducks, geese, and partridges which abounded around them; famine and disease speedily did their work, and when Munk, who had remained in his hut four days without food, at length had resolution to crawl out, he found that out of a crew of sixty-four men, two alone survived! These three escaped after enduring incredible hardships. In 1719 the Hudson's Bay Company fitted out an expedition consisting of a ship and a sloop, under the general command of Mr. Knight, a civil officer. The issue was utterly disastrous-the whole company perished fearfully; after the lapse of

near fifty years, their remains were found by some boats employed in the whale fishery, on Marble Island, near Chesterfield Inlet. An aged Esquimaux related their fate. In getting into harbour, one of their ships was irremediably in jured. The second winter came, and sickness and famine had reduced their numbers from fifty to twenty. The summer came, and five only of the twenty were found alive. Three of these shortly died. The two survivors went frequently to the top of an adjacent height, earnestly looking in every direction for relief; they would then return, and, sitting down close to gether, weep bitterly. One died, and the life of the other also departed while attempting to dig his grave. Dreadful suffering and loss of life awaited the bold adventurers who, in succeeding generations, attempted the insuperable difficulties of Arctic discovery; none, however, so utterly fatal as those above noted. But in 1819 Sir John Franklin, the officer who now commands the Expedition whose absence causes so much uneasiness-then a lieutenant-conducted an Expedition overland down the Coppermine River, which after achieving the object of their voyage by reaching the Arctic Sea, endured, on the return route, sufferings and horrors almost without example. Their route up Hood's River was accomplished without disaster, though under great privation, until they reached a grand cataract, passing between insurmountable barriers of rock. After losing many days, they constructed two canoes, with which they passed the rapids. The Canadian voyageurs now became insubordinate; the canoes were destroyed; they threw away the fishing lines, and seemed

desperate.

On

On arriving at the Coppermine River, 130 yards wide, no means existed of crossing it. Eight whole days were lost before this could be accomplished-days of misery and starvation. the 5th October Lieutenant Back, with three men, was sent forward to Fort Enterprise. The remainder again separated; Dr. Richardson (the same who commanded one of the expeditions in search of his old companion), Mr. Hood, and Hepburn, a seaman, remained at an encampment, twenty-four miles distant from Fort Enterprise. Sir John Franklin, with the others, eight in number, hastened forward. Next day three of the party, with the fiend Michel the Iroquois, returned to the camp. Franklin, with the four who remained to him, pushed on and reached the Fort, which to their unutterable horror they found deserted - Back had gone forward in search of sustenance. Twenty days of horrible suffering had passed, when two gaunt figures entered the Fort, and were with difficulty recognised as Richardson and Hepburn. Their harrowing tale was soon told: for two days after the separation they had had nothing whatever to eat; on the third, Michel the Iroquois entered the camp, bearing provisions, a hare and a partridge, and what he said was wolf's flesh; they looked upon him as their preserver-he was feeding them with the flesh of their three comrades, whom he had murdered! Some days had passed; Richardson was gathering tripe de roche, Hood and Michel were left in conversation at the fire, when the sound of a gun was heard, and Richardson hastening to the spot found poor Hood shot through the head: it was at first thought that oppressed by his

sufferings he had destroyed himself; but circumstances made it clear that he also had been murdered by Michel. Richardson and Hepburn resolved to rejoin Franklin as soon as possible, and set forward accompanied by Michel; the savage was observed to linger behind, and to put his gun in order-there could be no doubt of his intention, and when he came up Richardson shot him through the head. Fearful, indeed, and unutterable were the sufferings of the united survivors, but on the 7th November, three Indians arrived, bearing supplies from Back; by these they were tended with the greatest care, and conveyed to Moose Deer Island, where they rejoined that officer. The whole journey comprised the distance of 5550 miles, a great part of which was accompanied by miseries and horrors hardly to be paralleled; and borne with a firmness and fertility of resource, which afford the best guarantee that the lost Expedition will not want for all that experience and fortitude can accomplish.

Another Expedition, which endured great privation, under circumstances similiar to those which may now be supposed to surround that under Sir John Franklin, but which happily returned without disaster, years after they were given up for lost, afford ground for hope that similar mercies may be vouchsafed to the latter gallant band. In 1829 Captain Ross left the Thames in the Victory, and arrived at Lancaster Sound in August. Here they found the wreck of the Fury (one of the ships of Parry's Expedition in 1824-5), from which they completed their supplies of fuel and other necessaries. The results of the Expedition

were considerable. They discovered the great peninsula of Boothia Felix, and Commander James Clark Ross (nephew of the Captain, and second in command), crossing the narrow neck which joins it to the main land, reached the Arctic Sea. The winter of 1830-1 was of unprecedented severity (the thermometer fell to 92° below the freezing point!); the Victory was frozen in, and it proved impossible to force her out of the ice-locked harbour. The year 1831 passed in extensive explorations, in one of which Commander Ross reached that point of the earth's surface which is considered to be the Northern Magnetic Pole-one of the grandest achievements of science. In the autumn of 1831 they succeeded in getting the Victory out of the harbour, but they could not force her round the east point of Boothia Felix; the winter of 1831-2 was, therefore, spent in the ice. In May, 1832, it was necessary to abandon the ship and attempt their escape. On the 1st July, they reached Fury Beach, where they obtained some relief from her stores. But further progress seemed impossible; they attempted to prosecute their journey, but were obliged to abandon their boats and to return to the Fury, where they passed the winter of 1832-3. In July, 1833, they again essayed the apparently hopeless task-but all was changed

where before all was ice, the sea was now open; they pushed on, and on the 25th August reached a whaling ship, "the Isabella of Hull, once commanded by Captain Ross," by the crew of which they were received as men risen from the dead. They had been more than four years in these terrible regions.