ferent and distant quarters, on a scale which ing the original discoverer; and he gave the comconveyed a high idea of its greatness, but with-mand to Hernan Cortes, a personal favourite, out at all ascertaining its outline and limits. but who possessed every quality fitting him for There was still ample unexplored coast to leave such an undertaking. In March, 1519, he landed room for the passage to India, which continued at Vera Cruz, and having burned his ships, to be the grand object in the discoveries that marched into the interior with about 500 men. immediately followed. We shall begin with those With this small force, seconded by his own supemost important ones, made by way of the Gulph rior sagacity and daring, Cortes subverted the emof Mexico. Even before the fourth voyage of pire of Mexico, put its sovereigns to death, and Columbus, Alonzo de Ojeda, on learning the re- annexed it to the Spanish crown. Having reached sults of the third, set out from Spain in 1499, the South Sea, he employed Alvarado to march and following up the career of his predecessor, along its coasts, which he did for the space of explored the coast from Margarita to Cape de 400 miles, till he reached Guatemala. Nunez de Vela. He was accompanied as pilot by Amerigo Guzman afterwards penetrated the northern Vespucci, a skilful navigator, who, returning to provinces to New Galicia, now Guadalaxara and Europe, published a narrative of the voyage, re- Zacatecas. Cortes himself, having equipped a presenting himself as the first discoverer of the fleet in 1536, discovered the peninsula of "Calicontinent. The relation was read with extra-fornia, with its deep gulph, commonly named in ordinary interest, and the public adopted the name that age the Vermilion Sea. + of America, yielding him an honour undoubt- The discovery by Balboa of the South Sea edly due to Columbus. In 1500, Roderigo de remained long without any result, through the Bastidas explored the coast from Cape Vela to weakness or disunion of the officers employed. the point reached by Columbus in his fourth The most tempting accounts were however revoyage, thus connecting a vast extent of conti-ceived of the wealth of Peru, and the abundance nent. Ojeda and Nicuessa obtained grants of of its precious metals. In 1531, Pizarro, a different portions; but their colonies, conducted daring adventurer, who had sailed with Ojeda, rashly and violently, were almost entirely de- after one unsuccessful attempt, succeeded in stroyed. A remnant was assembled at Darien assembling a band of brave and fierce followers, by Vasco Nugnez de Balboa, an officer of great with whom he sailed to attack that great country. enterprise, who, penetrating across the isthmus, By a union of boldness and treachery, he seized the came in view of the great southern ocean. Vast empire and treasure of the Inca; and Peru became prospects were thus opened: but the court of an appendage of the Spanish crown. Almagro, the Spain ungenerously transferred the chief com- companion and rival of Pizarro, pushed southward mand to Pedrarias Davila, who, actuated by into Chili, but he met there with great difficulties, mean jealousy, persecuted and put to death his and was recalled by the affairs of Peru. Pedro predecessor, without himself achieving any thing de Valdivia, however, having the government of of importance. that country conferred upon him, marched to The discovery of the northern coast of the the southern border of its fertile territory, as far Gulph was begun by Ponce de Leon. This officer, as 40° S. Lat. Vadillo, in 1537, made a march while in command at Porto Rico, was misled by from Darien to Peru, through the fine counthe illusory report of a fountain, in which who- tries of New Granada and Quito. Expeditions ever bathed was restored from the most decrepit to conquer the latter were undertaken by Baold age to all the bloom and vigour of youth. nalcazar and Alvarado, who, after contending In pursuit of this chimera, he beat about from for its possession, agreed to divide it between coast to coast, plunging into every pool, of them. In 1540, Gonzalez Pizarro, brother to course without success. In the course of his the conqueror, undertook an expedition through search, he came in view of an unknown coast, the Andes to the west of Quito, in hopes of diswhich he named Florida. Sailing along to a covering a country said to abound in fine cinconsiderable extent, and turning the southern namon. After numberless hardships, he came point, he ascertained it to be part of the con- to the banks of the great river Amazon. Having tinent, and the Spaniards long continued thus to followed its course for some distance, he emname and to claim as their own the whole ter-ployed Orellana, one of his officers, to descend ritory to Canada inclusive, though they were ultimately unable to maintain more than this southern extremity. the stream in a light bark to search for pro- In The main direction was still towards the west. In 1517, Cordoba from Cuba sailed along the coast of Yucatan, and collected some intel-progress, discovery proceeded, though in a ligence of the wealth and civilization of Mexico. He was followed next year by Juan de Grizalva, who, in the same direction, traced the entire coast of Mexico as far as Panuco. The fertile shores, well built towns, and abundance of gold, inspired the most flattering ideas of this coast, which was immediately dignified with the title of New Spain. In 1519, Garay, governor of Jamaica, sent four ships under Pineda, who, beginning at Florida, traversed the whole coast as far as Vera Cruz. The entire survey of the Gulph of Mexico was thus completed.* less brilliant train, along the eastern coast. 1514, Juan Diaz de Solis, a skilful mariner, was sent to sail round America, and reach the opposite side of the isthmus of Darien. Solis, beginning with St. Augustine, the limit of Pinçon's discovery, surveyed the whole coast of Brazil, and then came to the grand opening of the Rio de la Plata. But, having incautiously ventured on shore with a small party, he was surprised by the natives, and, with several of his party, experienced the dreadful fate which awaits those captured by the cannibal tribes of this conVelasquez, governor of Cuba, on receiving tinent. The remaining crews, on witnessing this the flattering accounts brought by Grizalva, catastrophe, were struck with dismay, and imdetermined to lose no time in fitting out an mediately returned home. Three years after, armament for the conquest of New Spain. Fernando Magalhaens, or Magellan, a PorJealousy, however, deterred him from employ-tuguese, discontented with his treatment in his Oviedo. Robertson. Marit. and Inl. Discov. B. iv. ch. iii. iv.; Bancroft's Hist. United States, ch. ii. + Cortese Relationi, Ramusio III. Robertson. native country, offered his services to Charles V. The immediate object was to reach the Moluccas from the west, and thus, according to the papal grant, establish a claim to those islands, which were then much valued. A fleet of five sail being equipped, he sailed in September 1519, and having proceeded along the coast of Brazil, reached Port St. Julian, where he wintered. In October 1520, he entered the strait bearing his name, and after a few weeks' navigation, saw the great Pacific opening before him. He stretched directly across, and came to the Philippines, where he was killed in a contest with the natives; but his vessel had the honour of being the first that circumnavigated the globe. In 1526, Sebastian Cabot was sent out to the La Plata, where he ascended the Parana and the Paraguay, and, notwithstanding the opposition of the Portuguese, established two or three forts. In 1535, Juan de Mendoza, an opulent Spaniard, founded the city of Buenos Ayres, and in 1537 Juan de Ayolas penetrated across the Andes to Peru. Thus the great outlines of Southern America were traced in every direction.* Discovery in the north did not proceed with the same rapid steps. We have already noticed the important voyages made by the Cabots. This excited the rivalry of the Portuguese, and in 1500 Gaspar de Cortereal, a nobleman of that nation, set sail and surveyed a considerable extent of the coast of Labrador. He carried off about 50 of the natives, to employ them as slaves; but the enmity of the people, thus justly roused, probably led to the fatal result of his next voyage, from which he never returned. His brother Michael, sailing in search of him in the following year, met the same fate, which was shared also by another expedition sent in 1503. The reign of Henry VIII. was unfavourable to nautical enterprise. The discovery of the Cabots was not followed up, and Sebastian sought the service of Spain. He was sent out, however, in 1517, as pilot to an expedition commanded by Sir Thomas Pert, which, it appears, actually entered Hudson's Bay; but the commander then lost courage and returned, to Cabot's great indignation. This discovery attracted little notice, and was soon forgotten. France now entered on the career of American discovery. In 1524 Francis I. employed Giovanni Verazzano, a Florentine navigator, who sailed along and described the coast from Carolina to Newfoundland. Unhappily, in a subsequent voyage, he fell into the hands of the natives, and suffered a cruel death. Ten years after Jacques Cartier, a seaman of St. Malo, performed several voyages, in which he entered the Gulph of St. Lawrence, and ascended the river as high as Montreal. Attempts were then made to colonize these countries, for some time without success: however, in 1604, De Montz founded the colony of Acadia, and Champlain, in 1608, that of Canada. The latter, engaging in warlike expeditions, penetrated southward to the lake bearing his name, and westward beyond Lake Huron. + The Spaniards, meantime, as already observed, had, under the title of Florida, claimed nearly all North America; nor were they wanting in vigorous efforts to make good their title. In 1520, Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon discovered and attempted to form a settlement on South Carolina; but having begun by entrapping and carrying off a number of the inhabitants, he excited such • Herrera Robertson. Marit. and In). Dis., B. IV. ch. vi. vij. + Ramusio, III. Mem. Cabot, ch. xiii. Champlain, Voyages. a fierce enmity that many of the settlers were killed, and the rest returned to Hispaniola. In 1524, Estevan Gomez sailed as far as the latitude of New York, whence he brought off a cargo of slaves. A more important expedition was undertaken in 1528 by Narvaez, the rival of Cortes, and sent to supersede him, but who had been vanquished and made prisoner. He now sought to indemnify himself by a kingdom in Florida. He landed with a force of about 600 men, and advanced about 800 miles into the interior, baffling all attempts to oppose his progress. The natives, however, irritated by his violent and domineering conduct, posted themselves in the woods, and harassed him by constant attacks and surprises. The Spaniards, completely exhausted, and in extreme want, were obliged to seek the nearest coast. Unable to reach their ships, they constructed frail barks, which, on coming out to the open sea, were wrecked, and almost the whole number perished. Alvaro Nugnez the treasurer being cast ashore, contrived, by conciliating the Indians, acting as a merchant and physician, and even pretending to work miracles, to make his way to Mexico, after a seven years' pilgrimage. The land route was thus traced between that country and Florida. This catastrophe did not prevent another attempt. Fernando di Soto had been an associate of Pizarro in the conquest of Peru, where he distinguished himself by the capture of Cuzco, and other exploits. He returned to Spain with a high name and a princely fortune; but instead of sitting down to enjoy these, he resolved to make them instruments for conquering an empire for himself. His reputation attracted many of the most distinguished Spanish youths as volunteers; and in May 1528 he landed in Florida, with a more powerful armament than those which had conquered Mexico and Peru. The exploits of Soto surpassed, in daring valour and brilliant achievement, those of Cortes and Pizarro; but his fortune was far different. There was here no great empire, no central point to strike at. He struggled on amid a succession of fierce and petty tribes, whom he always vanquished, but who rose around and behind him, and never left to his troops more than the ground which they covered. He was lured on by reports and specimens of the gold formation of North Carolina; but arriving there, in a most exhausted state, and finding only ridges of naked hills, he turned back. He afterwards pushed far to the westward, crossed the Mississipi in about lat. 35°, and proceeded northward to near the present site of New Madrid. Finding no report of gold, or rich kingdoms, he made a dash at the extreme west, passed the heads of the White River, then descended the Washita and Red River to the Mississippi. Here, overpowered by fatigue and disappointment, he sunk into the grave. The miserable remnant of his men, anxious to conceal his death from the Indians, carried the body at dead of night into the middle of the river, and sunk it beneath the waters, afterwards, putting together some rude barks, they made their escape to Mexico. t The wanderings of Alvaro had attracted the attention of the Spaniards to the regions immediately north of Mexico. A friar, Marco di Nizza, set out with a party to explore them, returned with a romantic account of a city, named Cevola, having 20,000 splendid houses, and its most common utensils of gold, silver, Alvaro Naufragios in Barcia Historiaderes, tom. ii. Vega, Florida. Bancroft, i. 11, &c. and the richest jewels. Mendoza, the viceroy, | name, leading into Hudson's Bay; but he was hoping to emulate the glory of Cortes, fitted arrested in them by the ice; he carried home, out two large expeditions, one to proceed by however, a store of the black stone. The hopes land under Vasquez Coronado, the other by sea of the nation were higher than ever, and the under Fernando Alarchon. Coronado, after queen sent him back with 15 ships, a strong fort a most arduous march through rugged and deso- in frame-work, and 100 men to form a colony. late mountains, reached the plain of Cevola, and, In approaching the place, however, he was atnotwithstanding a most desperate resistance, tacked by so furious a tempest, with islands of ice forced an entry, but found a mere village of 400 driving against the vessels, that he had the utmost houses, with nothing at all splendid; the jewels difficulty in saving and bringing them home. were only pebbles and rock-crystal. In hopes These disasters, and the discovery that the apof achieving something, he marched 300 leagues pearances of gold were illusory, caused a susto the coast, where he found a city of somewhat pension of this series of enterprize. greater consequence, named Quivira, which cannot now be identified. Alarchon, unable even to join his associate, returned equally disappointed. Cabrillo, a Portuguese seaman, was then employed by Mendoza to explore the coast. He reached as high as 44° N. lat. but brought back a gloomy account of the aspect of the region, and the difficulties of navigating this northern sea.* The zeal of Spain now slackened; but, in 1579, Drake, in his expedition round the world, traced the north-western coast as high as lat. 48°. There is a narrative by a Spaniard named Juan de Fuca, who boasts that, in 1596, he reached a similar latitude; and his report, long discredited, has been confirmed, in a great measure, by the discovery of a strait closely answering his de- | scription, and now bearing his name. In 1596 and 1602 the Conde de Montercy employed Sebastian Viscayno, who did not, however, reach so far as Cabrillo. There is also a narrative by De Fonte, who boasted that, in 1640, he had reached the latitude of 53°, where he found numerous islands separated by narrow straits, which he named the Archipelago of St. Lazare, and within them a large lake named Belle. This account is generally branded as fictitious; yet we cannot but observe, that it strikingly agrees with the numerous chain of islands found by Vancouver in the same latitude, while Lake Belle may be the interior sea between them and the main.t The power of Spain having declined, she was unable to maintain the vast pretensions she had advanced in relation to Florida. Britain, now become a much more formidable maritime power, established colonies in Virginia and New England in defiance of Spain. In doing so, although there was not room for great discoveries, she acquired a far more accurate knowledge of this long range of coast. The expectation was still entertained, that some of its openings might lead into the South Sea, and this was even viewed by the Virginia company as one of their leading objects. But the laborious survey of Chesapeake Bay, by Smith, in 1608, nearly put an end to these hopes. In 1585, a number of leading merchants fitted out 2 vessels under John Davis. Steering farther N. than Frobisher, he crossed from Greenland the straits bearing his name, and came upon the American land in about 66° N. He sailed somewhat farther N., and surveyed different parts of the coast, but was obliged by the lateness of the season to return. His report, however, being favourable, he was sent out again next year. Though much retarded by the encounter of a huge field of ice, he reached his former station, and steered thence S. E. till he came to Labrador, having passed numerous islands, as appeared to him, but probably the coasts bordering on the sounds and inlets leading into Hudson's Bay. Being assailed by tempests, he returned to England, still giving such favourable hopes that, though many of the adventurers held back, Mr. Sanderson, his zealous patron, procured for him a smaller armament. He pushed to the yet unattained point of 72° 12′ N., on West Greenland; thence he steered 40 leagues across, but was arrested by the fixed field of ice in the middle of the bay. He vainly attempted to round it, and was pushed southward to his former station on the American coast. He penetrated 60 leagues up Cumberland Strait; then being obliged to return, he observed, without entering, the entrance of Hudson's Bay. He returned home as sanguine as ever, but the perseverance of the merchants was exhausted. The Muscovy and Levant companies, in 1602, sent out John Weymouth; but the mutinous spirit of his crew prevented his achieving any thing. They employed, in 1606, John Knight, who was surprised and killed in Labrador by the natives. In 1607, Sir Dudley Digges, Sir John Westenholme, and other gentlemen fitted out Henry Hudson, a celebrated navigator, who had already made three arctic voyages. Though furnished only with one ship of 55 tous, he penetrated, after many difficulties, into the bay, or rather inland sea, which bears his name. He surveyed a considerable extent of its eastern shore; but as November had arrived, was obliged to winter there. Much hardship being endured till spring, a mutiny arose among his crew, who exposed Hudson The British, however, made indefatigable efforts and his friends to perish on this inhospitable to discover a passage to India by the north. Sir shore, and, with thinned numbers, made their way Martin Frobisher, in 1576, found means to equip to Ireland. 2 slender barks of 25 tons for this arduous attempt. Passing the southern extremity of Greenland, he reached the coast north of Hudson's Strait; but,after sailing about for some time without perceiving any opening, and the season being advanced, he returned. One of the party brought home a shining black stone, which some ignorant persons pronounced an ore of gold. The utmost enthusiasm was thus kindled, and a larger expedition was easily fitted out next year. Frobisher then discovered the straits bearing his • Ramusio, vol. iii. p. 297, &c. Venegas California. Notwithstanding these melancholy circumstances, a great opening had thus been traced, and, in 1612, the Company sent out Sir Thomas Button, accompanied by Bylot, one of Hudson's companions. Sir Thomas having entered the bay, steered directly across through such an extent of open sea, as made him hope that he was now in the Pacific; when he suddenly saw himself arrested by a long line of coast, to which he gave the name of Hope checked. He wintered in Nelson's River, sailed up Roc's Welcome, surveyed various points on Southampton Island, and returned to England. After a fruitless attempt by Gibbons, Bylot and Baffin were sert, his direction, ascended the Columbia for about 90 miles. Capt. Gray, employed by the United States, had before been at its mouth, and given it its name; but he is said never to have entered the actual channel of the river. in 1615; but they were arrested by the eastern | he proved to be impracticable. Broughton, under coast of Southampton Island. In 1616, they went to try the more patent route of Davis's Straits. They made then the complete circuit of that great inland sea, which has since been named Baffin's Bay; but returned with the conviction that it was enclosed by land on every side, and afforded no hope of a passage. The search in this direction was discontinued; but, in 1631, Fox was sent out by the king, and James by the Bristol merchants, to try again the route of Hudson's Bay. Fox, after vainly attempting a western route, sailed up the channel bearing his name, the most direct route to the strait of the Fury and Hecla, but stopped much short of that point. James stood to the southward, and being entangled in the eastern coasts of the gulph, was obliged to winter there, when his crew suffered the utmost extremity of cold.* The north-western coast of America, notwithstanding the Spanish discoveries, remained still almost unknown. But after Russia had overrun Siberia, and reached the shores of the eastern ocean, her active rulers felt an interest respecting the opposite continent. It was even doubted, whether it was separated from that of Asia; but this, in 1728, was nearly ascertained by Behring, who reached the eastern extremity of the latter continent, on the straits which bear his name. He saw the land thence stretching N. W., but did not discover any part of America. A few years after, Krupishef, a Kossac, from Kamtschatka, descried, and sailed along it for two days. In 1741, Behring and Tehirikoff were sent thither to make a careful survey. They were separated: the former reached the coast, and landed about the latitude of 53°. He could not accomplish his object of surveying it to 65°, and being obliged to winter on one of the Aleutian islands, suffered severe hardships, to which he fell a sacrifice. Tchirikoff came in view of it in about lat 55°; but being unable to land, and having lost two boats in attempting to communicate with the natives, he returned to Kamtschatka. On this voyage the Russians found their claims to the American coast N. of 55°; and their traders soon established along it a chain of settlements with a view to collecting furs and skins of the sea-otter. ↑ Meantime some straggling attempts after the passage were made from the Atlantic. In 1668, the Hudson's Bay Company was formed, and undertook to make exertions for this object. There is however no record of any till 1721,when Knight, governor of one of their forts, prevailed on them to supply him with the materials for a voyage. Unfortunately, being obliged to winter on Marble Island, he and his whole crew fell a sacrifice to sickness and famine. In 1741, Mr. Dobbs, a gentleman of influence, and imbued with the the most ardent zeal on this subject, prevailed on the Admiralty to send out Capt. Middleton with the Furnace bomb-ketch. That officer, in 1742, sailed to the head of Sir Thomas Roe's Welcome, where he found on one side Repulse Bay, on the other a frozen strait between Southampton Island and the mainland. Having also looked up Wager inlet, he pronounced a passage in this direction impossible. Dobbs and others loudly accused him of carelessness and even treachery, and kindled such a spirit that 10,000/ was raised by subscription, and parliament voted a bounty of 20,000l. to the subscribers in the event of their success. Two vessels were sent out under Captains Morr and Smith, who however merely examined the Wager inlet, ascertaining that there was no passage, and then returned. Maritime expeditions were now suspended, but some important discoveries were made by land. Ever since Baflin's last voyage, the impression had prevailed that North America stretched indefinitely towards the pole. But in 1769, Mr. Hearne, sent by the Hudson's Bay Company, descended Coppermine River, and found it to terminate in a sea at about 65° N. lat. In 1789, Sir Alexander Mackenzie, an agent of the North West Fur Company, descended, much farther westward, the great river bearing his name, and came to what he termed a lake, but which, from its having tides and containing whales, was very decidedly judged to be also a sea. There was thus found great room to suppose that, in a latitude between 60° and 70°, America was bounded by a great Arctic ocean: while from these observations combined with those of Cook, the estimate of its breadth was greatly enlarged. Capt. Cook employed his last voyage in examining the north-west boundaries of America, and in attempting to effect a north-west passage. He traced the coast from 50° northwards, till he came to Cape Prince of Wales, the western limit of the continent: then steered north-east till, in about 70°, he was arrested by an unbroken chain These considerations produced little influence, of ice islands. He returned, naming the adjacent till, after the peace of 1815, when the energies promontory Icy Cape; and King and Clerke next called forth during the late war sought a different season in vain attempted to penetrate further. direction. Sir John Barrow proved that the The information obtained in this voyage induced impression against the existence of a passage, many English ships to resort to this coast with a derived from former failures, rested on very slight view to the capture of the sea-otter, for whose rich grounds. Under his auspices, Capt. Ross was skin there is a regular demand in the China mar- sent out in 1818, with the Isabella and Alexander, ket. Dixon and Meares, in this pursuit, explored to make a more full trial in Baffin's Bay. Nootka and the adjacent coasts. The Spaniards He sailed entirely round it, but returned deattempted to oppose this trade, and even cap-cidedly reporting that navigator's opinion to tured the Argonaut, a British vessel; but were be correct, and that it afforded no western obliged to withdraw their opposition. They now sent several expeditions, particularly one under Ayala and Maurelle; but these could make no discovery which had not been anticipated. In 1791-2, Vancouver was employed in making a careful survey of these coasts, in the hope of finding a passage into the Atlantic, through one of their numerous bays; but this Purchas, iii. 596. 716. Narratives of Fox and James Barrow Arctic Voyages. passage. Lieut. Parry of the Alexander, however, and other officers, were of opinion that the spacious opening of Lancaster Sound had been quitted without due examination, and afforded a favourable promise. He was therefore sent out next year, and though he did not reach the sound till August, found all his expectations fulfilled. The ships, during the first day after + Muller. Cox. Burney. entering the sound, had an unobstructed run of upwards of a hundred miles. After sailing a little farther, he was arrested by ice, and obliged to turn southward along the eastern shore of Prince Regent's Inlet. Being arrested there, he returned northwards, and was gratified to find the passage to the west become quite clear. He run along it to beyond 110° W. long. thus entitling the crew to a royal bounty of 5,000l. He was then obliged to make arrangements for spending the winter, during which, notwithstanding the most rigorous cold, the health and spirits of the crew were surprisingly preserved. He was defeated in his attempt next year to penetrate farther west, and obliged to return. Behring's Straits; and, though the ship could not be navigated beyond the Icy Cape of Cook, Mr. Elson, in a boat, reached 156° 21 W. long., where a cape stretched into lat. 71° 23′ N. The expeditions were thus within 9 short deg. of long. from each other; of which had they been aware, they would at every cost have pushed through. Dr. Richardson succeeded in ploring the whole coast between the Mackenzie and the Coppermine, connecting his discoveries with those of the former voyage, and leaving unknown only two comparatively small portions between Franklin's extreme points and those reached by Beechey on one side, and Parry on the other. ex Capt. Ross, regretting the mistake by which he had failed to discover the entrance into the Polar Sea, anxiously sought the means of retrieving this error. These were furnished by a public-spirited friend, Sir Felix Booth, and the resources of steam navigation were called forth. They were not of much avail; but Capt. Ross, through many difficulties, made his way into Prince Regent's Inlet, and reached considerably farther than Parry on its eastern limit. He thrice wintered there, and explored a great extent of the adjacent coasts. He found himself on what appeared a peninsula, named Boothia, reaching to 74° N. lat., and connected with the continent by a narrow isthmus. considerable extent of the American coast to the westward was also explored, but without reaching Franklin's Turnagain. Commander Ross is considered as having ascertained the site of the magnetic pole on the western coast of Boothia. Capt. Ross, in attempting to reach Capt. Parry was again sent out the following ycar; but it was now resolved to try the channel by the northern head of Hudson's Bay, which Middleton was considered as having by no means completely explored. He found no reason to doubt the accuracy of that navigator; but by pushing up the Fox Channel, he arrived at a strait, named after his vessels the Fury and Hecla, which was ascertained to afford a passage into the Polar sea. It was so blocked up with ice, however, that his utmost efforts, during two successive seasons, could not force a passage. Having returned to England, he was sent out a third time, in 1824, to endeavour to penetrate through Prince Regent's Inlet into the open sea, of which he had now fully ascertained the existence. The season however being peculiarly rigorous, it was not till next summer that he reached the western coast; and the Fury, being then squeezed between two masses of ice, sustained so severe an injury, that it became necessary to abandon her, and give up all at-home, was obliged to spend another winter near tempts to proceed farther. A the northern point of the peninsula. His arrival, in 1833, occasioned a joyful surprise, as the most melancholy forebodings had prevailed as to his fate. observations then made it appeared probable, that Boothia did not form part of the American continent; but was connected with a more southerly peninsula which, along with it, formed one great island. Other means were at the same time resorted to for exploring the northern boundary of America. Lieut. Franklin and Dr. Richardson undertook to proceed to the mouth of the Cop- During the alarm felt at his long absence, an permine River, and thence attempt to trace expedition to discover and release him was fitted the whole coast, from the strait of the Fury and out, partly by government and partly by private Hecla to the Icy Cape of Cook. They sailed subscription. It was entrusted to Capt. Back, a from England in May, 1820; were obliged to companion of Franklin, with the hope that he winter on the Athabasca Lake, and in July, might also make some further discoveries. Having 1821, embarked on the Arctic Ocean. They left England in February, 1833, he wintered at turned to the eastward, but were forced to take a the eastern end of Great Slave Lake, and next very oircuitous course through deep sounds and summer descended a river named the Thlew-eeinlets, particularly the great one named Co- chop. It terminated in a spacious bay, at the ronation Gulph. Hence on reaching Point end of which the coasts appeared to stretch, one Turnagain in 109° 25′ W. long., though the S. E., the other due W. From Cape Ogle, where sea continued open, they found it necessary to this last direction began, was seen on the E. an return, from the exhausted state of the equip-apparently boundless expanse of sea. By the ment. The party, being obliged to travel by land over a range of naked territory broken by lakes and rivers, endured the utmost extremes of human misery, and several perished before they could reach Fort Enterprise on the Coppermine. They returned, however, with unbroken In 1838, the public were surprised by the inspirits and determination, and government libe- telligence, that one of the blanks still left in rally furnished the means of renewing their ef- American geography had been filled up. The forts. At the same time, Capt. Beechey was sent Hudson's Bay Company, now certainly an active by way of the Pacific Ocean to follow in the and liberal body, determined to explore what was steps of Cook, and meet them from the west- yet unknown in their own territory. Under the ward. Franklin's new expedition set sail in 1825, intelligent direction of Mr. Simpson, the resident wintered on Great Bear Lake, and early next governor, Messrs. Dease and Simpson, in the year were at the mouth of the Mackenzie, whence summer of 1837, went over the intermediate space they now proposed to begin their survey. From between the points reached by Franklin and this point Capt. Franklin proceeded W.; Dr. Beechey. It was found to run in a nearly direct Richardson E. The former explored a consider-line, presenting no remarkable feature except the able extent of coast bordered by ranges of the Rocky Mountains; but, after passing Foggy Island, in long. 147° W., the obstacles became so serious as made it necessary to turn back. Meantime, however Capt. Beechey had passed efflux of two large rivers. The same gentlemen were employed, in 1838, to explore from Cape Turnagain to the strait of the Fury and Hecla; a more difficult task. The first important steps in the discovery of |