THE INTRODUCTION.

It is fortunate for commerce, and the intercourse of nations, that there is implanted in man’s nature a desire of novelty, which no present gratification can satisfy; that when he has visited one region of the earth, he is still, like Alexander, sighing for another to explore; and that, after having escaped one danger in his progress, he is no less eager to encounter others, that may chance to obstruct him in the course of his pursuits.

If the history of former hardships could have deterred men from engaging in new adventures, the Voyage, the particulars of which we are now about to relate, would probably never have been undertaken. The dreary regions that surround the poles are so little accustomed to feel the kindly influences of the enlivening sun, and are so destitute of the ordinary productions of the earth in happier climates, that little less than one whole quarter of the globe is, by its sterility, rendered uninhabitable by human beings, and but thinly occupied by a very inconsiderable number of the race of quadrupedes. The many and almost insuperable difficulties that must therefore be expected in traversing these forlorn desarts, where no relief is to be expected, but from the favourable interposition of that power, whose merciful providence extends to the remotest corners of the earth, are, upon reflection, enough to cool the ardour of the most enterprising, and to stagger the resolution of the most intrepid.

In the contention between powers, equally formed by nature to meet an opposition, it may be glorious to overcome; but to encounter raging seas, tremendous rocks, and bulwarks of solid ice, and desperately to persist in attempts to prevail against such formidable enemies; as the conflict is hopeless, so the event is certain. The hardiest and most skilful navigator, after exposing himself and his companions to the most perilous dangers, and suffering in proportion to his hardiness the most complicated distresses, must at last submit to return home without success, or perish by his perseverance.

This observation will be sufficiently justified, by a brief recapitulation of the Voyages that have been undertaken, with a view to the discovery of a North-east Passage to China and Japan.

The first who attempted this discovery was Sir Hugh Willoughby, with three ships, so early as the year 1553, the æra of perilous enterprizes. This gentleman sailed to the latitude of 75 degrees north, within sight, as it is imagined, of New Greenland, now called Spitsbergen; but by a storm was driven back, and obliged to winter in the river Arzena, in Lapland, where he was frozen to death with all his company. He left upon his table a concise account of all his discoveries, in which he mentions, having sailed within sight of a country in a very high latitude, about which geographers are divided; some affirming, as has been said, that it could be no other than New Greenland, afterwards discovered, and named by the Dutch Spitsbergen; others, that what he saw was only a fog-bank; and of this latter opinion is Capt. Wood, an able navigator, of whom we shall have occasion to speak hereafter.

To Sir Hugh Willoughby succeeded Capt. Burroughs, afterwards Comptroller of the Navy to Queen Elizabeth. This gentleman attempted the passage with better fortune, and returned full of hope, but without success. He passed the North cape in 1556, advanced as far north as the 78th degree, discovered the Wygate, or strait that divides Nova Zembla from the country of the Sammoyds, now subject to Russia: and having passed the easternmost point of that strait, arrived at an open sea, from whence he returned, having, as he imagined, discovered the passage so painfully sought, and so ardently desired. Some affirm, his discoveries extended beyond the 80th degree of latitude, to a country altogether desolate, where the mountains were blue and the valleys snow.

Be that as it may, the favourable report of Capt. Burroughs encouraged Queen Elizabeth to fit out two stout vessels to perfect the discovery. The command of these ships was given to the Captains Jackman and Pett, who, in 1580, sailed through the same strait, that had been discovered by Burroughs, and entered the eastern sea; where the ice poured in so fast upon them, and the weather became so tempestuous, that after enduring incredible hardships, and sustaining the most dreadful shocks of ice and seas, terrible even in the relation, they were driven back and separated; and neither Pett nor his ship or crew were ever heard of afterwards.

After this disaster and disappointment, the desire of visiting the frozen seas to the north-east began to abate among the English, but was assumed by the Dutch with an obstinate perseverance, peculiar to that phlegmatic nation. The first Dutchman we read of who made the attempt was John Cornelius, of whose voyage, in 1595, we have but a very imperfect account; he was followed however in 1606 by William Barrans, or, as some write, Barents, an able and experienced seaman and mathematician, who being supplied with every necessary for so hazardous a voyage, by the generosity and patronage of Prince Maurice, proceeded in the same course which had been pointed out to him by the English navigators; but having passed the Wygate, found the like incumbrances, and the like tempests which the English had experienced; and not being able to bear up against them, returned thoroughly convinced, that the wished-for passage was not to be attained in that direction. However, he traversed the coast of Nova Zembla, gave names to several promontories and head-lands, and planned to himself a new course to steer, by which he hoped to accomplish what he had failed in discovering, by following the steps of those who had gone before him.

In 1607, animated rather than discouraged by disappointment, he entered upon his second voyage, with the spirit of a man fully prepossessed with success. He had heard, that some of the whalers, who had now begun to frequent the North Seas, had, either by design or accident, advanced much farther to the northward than those who had been purposely fitted out upon discoveries; he therefore determined to steer to the northward of Nova Zembla, till he should arrive at the height of the pole, under which he was persuaded he should find an open sea; and, by changing his course to the southward, avoid those obstructions which had retarded his passage to the north-east.

In this hope he continued till he arrived on the coast of Nova Zembla, where, before he had reached the 77th degree, he was so rudely attacked by the mountains of ice, that every where assailed him, that not being able to withstand their fury, he was driven against the rocks, and his ship dashed to pieces. Barents and the greatest part of his crew got safe to land, but it was to experience greater misery than those underwent who perished in the attempt. They were obliged to winter in a country, where no living creature besides themselves appeared to have existence; and where, notwithstanding their utmost efforts to preserve their bodies from the cold, the flesh perished upon the bones of some of them, and others died of the most excruciating pains.

In this extremity, and notwithstanding the anguish they endured, those who survived had still the fortitude and ingenuity to frame a pinnace from the wreck of their broken ship, in which, at the approach of summer, they made sail for Lapland; but before they arrived at Colu, their Captain died, and with him the hopes of perfecting his discovery.

It was now the active season for naval enterprizes. Private adventurers began to fit out ships for the North Seas. Innumerable sea animals had been observed to bask upon the ice; the tusks of whose jaws were found to excel, in whiteness, the finest ivory, and their carcases to yield plenty of excellent oil. In the infancy of the whale fishery, these were pursued with the same eagerness, with which both the English and Dutch endeavour at this day to make the whales their prey, and perhaps with no less profit. In following these, many islands were discovered to which they resorted, and, in course of time, the seas that were so formidable to the first discoverers, became frequented at the proper seasons by the ships of every nation.

Foreign navigators, however, were more sanguine in their notions of a north-west passage, than of the existence of a passage to the north-east; and it was not till many unsuccessful trials had been made to discover the former, that the latter was again attempted. The celebrated Hudson, who discovered the straits that leads to the great western bay, which still bears his name; after he had exerted his skill in vain to find a passage westward, was persuaded at last to undertake a voyage in search of a passage to the north-east. This he performed in 1610, but being discouraged by the miscarriages of others, and the fatal issue that had attended their obstinate perseverance, on viewing the face of the country, examining the currents, and traversing an immense continent of ice, that stretched along the ocean, in a direction from east south-east to west north-west, he concluded, that no passage could be practicable in that direction, and therefore returned without making any other material discovery.

From this time till the year 1676, the prosecution of this discovery was totally neglected by the English; and though the Dutch whalers amused the world with wonderful relations of their near approach to the pole, yet little credit was given to their reports till the arrival of one John Wood, who had accompanied Sir John Narborough in his voyage to the South Sea, with a view to establish a new trade with the Chilians, and natives of that vast tract of country, reaching from the Straits of Magellan to the confines of Peru.

This able and enterprizing navigator, being himself an excellent mathematician and geographer, and reading in the Philosophical Transactions a paper, by which the existence of a north-east passage to the eastern or Indian ocean was plausibly asserted, and this exactly coinciding with his own notions of the construction of the globe, he was induced, by this and other reasons, to apply to King Charles the Second for a commission to prosecute the discovery; the accomplishment whereof, it was said, would add to the glory of his Majesty’s reign, and immensely to the wealth and prosperity of his kingdoms.

Many about the Court of that needy Prince, hoping to share in the profits of the voyage, were earnest in prevailing with his Majesty to forward the design, who being himself fond of novelty, ordered the Speedwell Frigate to be fitted out at his own charge, manned, victualled, and provided with every necessary; while the Duke, his brother, and seven other courtiers, joined in the purchase of a Pink of one hundred and twenty tons, to accompany her, which they likewise manned and victualled, and furnished with merchandizes, such as were thought marketable on the coasts of Tartary or Japan; the countries they most probably would first fall in with after their passage through the North Sea.

These ships being in readiness, and commissions made out for their Commanders, Captain Wood was appointed to direct the expedition, on board the Speedwell, and Captain Flawes to bear him company on board the Prosperous.

On the 28th of May 1676, they sailed from the Buoy of the Nore, with the wind at south-west; and on the 4th of June cast anchor off Lerwick, in Brassey Sound, where they continued six days, to take in water and recruit their stores.

On Saturday the 10th they weighed anchor and continued their voyage; and on the 15th they entered the Polar circle, where the sun at that season of the year never sets. At noon the Speedwell broke her main-top-sail-yard in the slings, the first disaster that had happened, which, however, was easily repaired. The weather now began to grow hazey, a circumstance that frequently happens in the Polar regions, and darkens the air with the obscurity of night.

From this time till June 22, when they fell in with the ice in latitude 75 degrees 59 minutes north, nothing material occurred. On that day, at noon, they observed a continent of ice stretching to an imperceptible distance, in a direction from east-south-east and west-north-west. They bore away along the ice till the 28th, when they found it join to the land of Nova Zembla.

On the 29th they stood away to the south, to get clear of the ice; but unfortunately found themselves embayed in it. At 11 at night the Prosperous bore down upon the Speedwell, crying out, ice upon the weather-bow, on which the Speedwell clapt the helm hard a weather, and veered out the main-sail to ware the ship; but before she could be brought too on the other tack, she struck on a ledge of rocks, and stuck fast. They fired guns of distress, but were not heard, and the fog being so thick, that land could not be discerned, though close to the stern of their ship; no relief was now to be expected, but from Providence and their own endeavours. In such a situation, no description can equal the relation of the Captain himself, who, in the language of the times, has given the following full and pathetic account.

“Here, says he, we lay beating upon the rock in a most frightful manner, for the space of three or four hours, using all possible means to save the ship, but in vain; for it blew so hard, that it was wholly out of our power to carry out an anchor capable to do us any service. At length we saw land close under our stern, to the great amazement of us all, which before we could not see for the foggy weather; so I commanded the men to get out the boats before our mast came by the board, which was done. I sent the boatswain towards the shore in the pinnace, to see if there was any possibility of landing, which I much feared, because the sea ran so high. In half an hour he returned with this answer, that it was impossible to land a man, the snow being in high cliffs, the shore was inaccessible. This was bad tidings; so then it was high time to think on the safety of our souls, and we went all together to prayers, to beseech God to have mercy on us, for now nothing but individual ruin appeared before our eyes. After prayers, the weather cleared up a little, and looking over the stern, I saw a small beach directly with the stern of the ship, where I thought there might be some chance of getting on shore. I therefore sent off the pinnace a second time, with some men in her to be first landed, but she durst not venture to attempt the beach. I then ordered out the long-boat with twenty men to land, who attempted it, and got safe on shore. They in the pinnace seeing that, followed, and landed their men likewise, and both vessels returned to the ship without any accident. The men on shore desired some fire-arms and ammunition, for there were many bears in sight. I therefore ordered two barrels of powder, some small arms, some provisions, with my own papers and money, to be put on board the pinnace; but as she put off from the ship’s side, a sea overset her, so that all was lost, with the life of one man, and several others taken up for dead. The pinnace likewise was dashed to pieces, to our great sorrow, as by that disaster, one means of escaping from this dismal country, in case the Prosperous deserted us was cut off. The long-boat being on board, and the sea running high, the boatswain and some others would compel me and the Lieutenant to leave the ship, saying it was impossible for her to live long in that sea, and that they had rather be drowned than I; but desiring me when I came on shore, if it were possible, to send the boat again for them. Before we got half way to shore the ship overset, so making all possible haste to land the men we had on board, I went off to the ship again, to save those poor men who had been so kind to me before. With great hazard I got to the quarter of the ship, and they came down the ladder into the boat, only one man was left behind for dead, who had before been cast away in the pinnace; so I returned to the shore, though very wet and cold. We then hauled up the boat, and went up the land about a flight shot, where our men were making a fire and a tent with canvass and oars, which we had saved for that purpose, in which we all lay that night wet and weary. The next morning the man we left on board having recovered, got upon the mizzen-mast, and prayed to be taken on shore, but it blew so hard, and the sea ran so high, that tho’ he was a very pretty sailor, none would venture to bring him off.

The weather continuing blowing with extreme fogs, and with frost and snow, and all the ill-compacted weather that could be imagined put together, we built more tents to preserve ourselves; and the ship breaking in pieces, came all on shore to the same place where we landed, which served us for shelter and firing. Besides, there came to us some hogsheads of flour, and brandy in good store, which was no little comfort in our great extremity. We now lay between hope and despair, praying for fair weather, that Captain Flawes might find us, which it was impossible for him ever to do while the weather continued foggy; but fearing at the same time that he might be cast away as well as we.

But supposing we never were to see him again, I was resolved to try the utmost to save as many as I could in the long-boat. In order thereunto we raised her two feet, and laid a deck upon her to keep the sea out as much as possible; and with this boat, and thirty men, for she would carry no more, I intended to row and sail to Russia, but the crew not being satisfied who should be the men, began to be very unruly in their mind and behaviour, every one having as much reason to save himself as another, some holding consultation to save the boat, and all to run the like fortune; but here brandy was our best friend, for it kept the men always fox’d, so that in all their designs I could prevent them. Some were in the mind to go by land, but that I knew was impossible to any man; neither had we provisions nor ammunition to defend us from the wild beasts; so the passage by land being impracticable, and no passage by sea to be attempted till forty men were destroyed, I will leave it to the consideration of any, whether we were not in a most deplorable condition, without the interposition of divine providence.

The weather continued still very bad, with fogs, snow, rain, and frost, till the 9th day of our being on shore, which was the 8th day of July, when in the morning it cleared up, and to our great joy one of our people cried out a sail, which proved Captain Flawes; so we set fire to our town, that he might see where we were, which he presently discovered, so came up, and sent his boat to us; but before I went off, I wrote a brief relation of the intention of the voyage, with the accident that had befallen us, and put it into a glass bottle, and left it in the fortification I had there built; so by twelve o’clock we all got safe on board, but left all on shore that we had saved from the ship; for we much feared it would prove foggy again, and that we should be driven once more on this miserable country; a country, for the most part, covered perpetually with snow, and what is bare being like bogs, on whose surface grows a kind of moss, bearing a blue and yellow flour, the whole product of the earth in this desolate region. Under the surface, about two feet deep, we came to a firm body of ice, a thing never heard of before; and against the ice-cliffs, which are as high as either of the forelands in Kent, the sea has washed underneath, and the arch overhanging, most fearful to behold, supports mountains of snow, which, I believe, hath lain there ever since the creation.”

Thus far in Captain Wood’s own words. He adds, that by the tides setting directly in upon the shore, it may be affirmed with certainty, that there is no passage to the northward. One thing remarkable in his relation, and which seems to contradict the report of former navigators, is, that the sea is there salter than he had yet tasted it elsewhere, and the clearest in the world, for that he could see the shells at the bottom, though the sea was four hundred and eighty feet deep.

Being all embarked on board the Prosperous, on the 9th of July they changed their course, and steered for England; and, on the 23d of August, they arrived safe in the Thames, without any remarkable accident intervening.

After the miscarriage of this voyage, on which the highest expectations had been formed, the most experienced navigators in England seemed to agree, that a passage by the north, or north-east, had no existence. They were the more confirmed in this error, for an error it is, by the reasons assigned by Capt. Wood, for changing his opinion on this matter; for, before he went upon the discovery, he was fully persuaded himself, and likewise persuaded many others, that nothing was more certain. When, however, he first saw the ice, he imagined it was only that which joined to Greenland, and that no solid body of ice extended farther from land than twenty leagues; in this persuasion he altered his course, and coasted along in the direction in which the ice lay, expecting, at every cape or head-land of ice, after running a certain distance, to find an opening into the Polar ocean; but after running two or three glasses to the northward in one bay, he found himself entangled in another; and thus it continued till his ship was wrecked. By this experiment, he found the opinion of Barents confuted, namely, “that by stearing the middle course between Spitsbergen and Nova Zembla, an open sea might be attained, in which a ship might safely sail as far as the pole.” From his own experience, he therefore pronounced, that all the Dutch relations were forgeries which asserted, that any man had ever been under the pole; verily believing, that if there be no land to the northward of 80 degrees, that the sea is there frozen, and always continues so; and grounding his opinion upon this remark, that if the body of ice which he saw were to be conveyed ten degrees more to the southward, many centuries of years would elapse before it would be melted.

To this positive assertion, however, may be opposed, the testimony of many credible persons, some of whom have themselves sailed beyond the 80th degree of north latitude, and others, upon evidence, whose veracity there is no reasonable cause to bring in question.

Among the latter, the testimony of Mr. Joseph Moxon, member of the Royal Society of London, must have considerable weight. In a paper which this gentleman caused to be printed in the Philosophical Transactions, is this remarkable relation.

“Being about twenty years ago in Amsterdam, I went into a public house to drink a cup of beer for my thirst; and sitting by the public fire, among several people, there happened a seaman to come in, who seeing a friend of his there, who he knew went the Greenland voyage, wondered to see him, because it was not yet time for the Greenland fleet to come home, and asked him, what accident had brought him home so soon? His friend (who was the steersman) answered, that their ships went not out to fish, but only to take in the lading of the fleet, to bring it to an early market. But, said he, before the fleet had caught fish enough to lade us, we, by order of the Greenland Company, sailed unto the north pole, and came back again. Whereupon, says Moxon, I entered into discourse with him, and seemed to question the truth of what he said; but he did assure me it was true, and that the ship was then in Amsterdam, and many of the seamen belonging to her ready to justify the truth of it; and told me, moreover, that they had sailed two degrees beyond the pole. I asked him, if they found no land or islands about the pole? He answered, no; there was a free and open sea. I asked him, if they did not meet with a great deal of ice? He told me, no; they saw no ice about the pole. I asked him, what weather they had there? He told me, fine warm weather, such as was at Amsterdam in the summer-time, and as hot. I should have asked him more questions, but that he was engaged in discourse with his friend, and I could not, in modesty, interrupt them longer. But I believe the steersman spoke truth; for he seemed a plain, honest, and unaffectatious person, and one who could have no design upon me.”

To authenticate this relation it has been observed, that under the poles, the sun in June being 23 degrees high, and having little or no depression towards the horizon, always, as it were, swimming about in the same elevation, might invigorate that part of the hemisphere with more heat than he does our climate; when he is, in the winter, no more than 15 degrees at the highest, and but eight hours above the horizon; in which space the earth has time to cool, and to lose, in the night, the influences of heat which it receives in the day.

Another report upon like evidence was made to King Charles the Second, by Capt. Goulden, who being a Greenland whaler himself, spoke with two Hollanders in the North Seas, that had sailed within one degree of the pole, where they met with no ice, but a hollow grown sea, like that in the Bay of Biscay.

A still more credible testimony is, that about the year 1670, application being made to the States General for a charter to incorporate a company of merchants to trade to Japan and China, by a new passage to the north east; the then East India Company opposed it, and that so effectually, that their High Mightinesses refused to grant what the merchants requested.

At that time it was talked of in Holland, as a matter of no difficulty to sail to Japan by the way of Greenland; and it was publickly asserted and believed, that several Dutch ships had actually done it. The merchants being required to verify this fact, desired that the journals of the Greenland squadron of 1655 might be produced; in seven of which there was notice taken of a ship which that year had sailed as high as the latitude of 89; and three journals of that ship being produced, they all agreed, as to one observation taken by the master, August 1, 1655, in 88 degrees 56 minutes north.

But a proof incontestible, is the testimony of Captain Hudson, who sailed in 1607 to the latitude of 81 degrees 30 minutes north, where he arrived on the 16th of July, the weather being then pretty warm.

Add to all these, that the Dutch, who were employed in 1670, in endeavouring to find a north-east passage, advanced within a very few degrees of that open sea, which is now commonly navigated by the Russians, and which would infallibly have brought them to the coasts of China and Japan, had they persevered in the course they were pursuing.

It does not appear, however, from any authentic accounts that we can collect, that any voyage, professedly for the discovery of a north-east passage, has been undertaken by either public or private adventurers in England, since that of Capt. Wood in the year 1670, till the present year: and it is more than probable, that if the Russian discoveries on the north of Asia had never taken place, the thoughts of finding a practicable passage from Europe in that direction, would have lain dormant for ever.

But the vast and enterprizing genius of Peter the Great, in forcing his subjects out of that obscurity in which they had long been involved, has opened to the maritime powers new sources of commerce, and furnished fresh motives for new enterprizes. From a people unacquainted with a vessel bigger than a bark, and who knew no navigation but that of their own rivers, that wonderful Prince not only taught them the use of ships, but instructed them in the true principles of building and equipping them. Nay, he did more; for after making himself known and admired throughout Europe, he conceived the design of opening a communication with the remotest parts of the globe, and discovering to the world new countries which no European nation had ever yet explored.

With this design, he planned one of the boldest enterprizes that ever entered into the heart of man; and though he did not survive to see it executed, the glory of the atchievement is wholly his.

The country of Kamschatka was as much unknown to his predecessors, as it was to the rest of the civilized nations of the earth; yet he formed the design of making that savage country the centre of the most glorious atchievements.

It was in the last year of this great Monarch’s life, that he commissioned Capt. Behring to traverse the wild, and then almost desolate, country of Siberia, and to continue his route to Kamtschatka, where he was to build one or more vessels, in order to discover whether the country towards the north, of which at that time they had no distinct knowledge, was a part of America, or not; and if it was, his instructions authorized him to endeavour, by every possible means, to seek and cultivate the acquaintance of some European people, and to learn from them the state of the country at which he should arrive. If he failed in this, he was to make such discoveries as circumstances should present, and commit to writing the result of his observations for the use of his Imperial master.

To enter minutely into the particulars of Capt. Behring’s journey and voyage, would carry us beyond the limits prescribed for this Introduction: let it suffice to say, that after surmounting incredible difficulties, and suffering hardships which none but a Russian could have survived, he executed his commission successfully, and returned to Petersburg in safety, after an absence of five years, in which time, besides his voyage by sea, he had travelled, in going and returning, eighteen thousand miles by land.

It is from the second enterprizes of this astonishing man, and from the subsequent voyages of the Russians, that we are able to ascertain the existence of a north-east passage; and it is from thence, and from the late voyage of Capt. Phipps, that, we think, we may fairly infer the practicability of it.

It was some time about the year 1740, that Capt. Behring embarked on his second voyage from Kamtschatka, of which all that we know is, that he sailed southward to the isles of Japan, and from thence eastward about 80 leagues. At that distance from Japan he discovered land, which he coasted north-west, still approaching to the north-east cape of Asia, which he doubled, and named Cape Shelvghenski, not daring to land till he arrived at the mouth of a great river, where, sending his boats with most of his crew on shore, they never more returned, being either killed or detained by the inhabitants, which made his discovery incompleat; for not having men sufficient left to navigate the ship, she went on shore on an uninhabited island, where the Captain unfortunately died.

From this voyage, however, we learn that the sea, from the north-east cape of Kamtschatka, is open to the isles of Japan, and from a subsequent account of Russian voyages, published in the Philosophical Transactions, from a paper communicated by the celebrated Euler, it appears, that they passed along in small vessels, coasting between Nova Zembla and the continent, at divers times in the middle of summer, when those seas were open. The first expedition was from the river Oby, latitude 66 degrees north, longitude 65 degrees east from London, and at the approach of winter, the vessels sheltered themselves by going up the Janiska, the mouth of which is marked in our maps in latitude 70 degrees north, and in longitude 82 degrees east; from whence the next summer they proceeded to the mouth of the Lena in latitude 72 degrees north, and in longitude 115 degrees, into which they again retired for the winter season. The third expedition was from the month of this river, to the farthest north cape of Asia, in 72 degrees of north latitude, and in 172 degrees of east longitude from London. Thus the Russians having passed between the continent and Nova Zembla, and sailed as far as the easternmost north cape, and the English and Dutch having repeatedly sailed through the straits that divide Nova Zembla from the continent, nothing can be a plainer demonstration of the reality of a north-east passage, than the sum of the voyages here enumerated, when added together. The English and Dutch sail to Wygatz, or the strait of Nova Zembla; the Russians sail from Wygatz to the north cape of Asia; and Behring from the north cape to Japan. This is an incontrovertible demonstration; yet it is obvious, that this course can never be practicable to ships employed in trade. The Russians, by taking the advantage of an open sea and mild weather, in three years time accomplished but part of a voyage, which, by the Cape of Good Hope, may be made in less than one. Who therefore would run the hazard of so desperate a passage, for the sake of reaping imaginary advantages by an intercourse with savages, who, for aught we know, have nothing to exchange for European commodities, but the skins of bears, or the bones of monsters.

But tho’ the passage to the northern countries of the east was known to be impracticable to European navigators in this direction, it was worthy the greatness of a maritime people, to endeavour to determine the possibility of attaining the same end by another course.

The miscarriage and death of Barentz, and the shipwreck of Capt. Wood, had left the question undetermined, whether the regions adjoining to the pole are land or water, frozen or open sea. The advantages from this discovery, besides the glory resulting from it, had the decision terminated in favour of navigation, would have been immensely great. To have opened a new channel of commerce at a time when our trade is languishing, would have revived the drooping hopes of our manufacturers, and retained at home the numerous emigrants, who, for want of employment in their own country, are seeking new habitations, and new means of living in remote settlements, of the certainty of which they have no experience.

It must be acknowledged to the lasting honour of the noble Lord who presides at the head of the admiralty board, and who patronized the undertaking, that the means to render it successful, was in every respect proportioned to the importance of the discovery.

The vessels that were made choice of were the properest that could be devised. Bomb ketches are in the first instance stoutly built, and not being over large, are best adapted for navigating seas that are known to abound with shoals and covered rocks: these vessels, besides their natural strength, were sheathed with plank of seasoned oak three inches thick, to fortify them against the shocks and pressure of the ice, that, in their progress, they must infallibly encounter. They were, besides, furnished with a double set of ice poles, anchors, cables, sails and rigging, to provide against the terrible effects of the severe and tempestuous weather, that frequently happens in high latitudes, even in the middle of the most temperate seasons.

Nor was his Lordship less careful to provide for the comfortable subsistance of the men, than for the preservation of their lives, by his wise directions in equipping their ships. His first care was, to issue orders for killing and curing a sufficient quantity of beef and pork in the best manner possible, that their provisions might be good and fresh; and his next, to cause one hundred buts of porter to be brewed with the best malt and hops, that they might have proper drink to fortify them against the rigour of the climate they were about to pass. Their pease, oatmeal, rice and molossus, were all provided with equal care, and when all things were in readiness, the beer was stowed in the holds, and the vacancies filled up with coals, which served as ballast, that firing might not be wanting to warm and dry them when cold, or wet with labour, or with watching. Add to this, that a double quantity of spirits were put on board, with a large proportion of wine, vinegar, mustard, &c. &c. and what, we believe, was never before thought of in the fitting out of any King’s ships, a considerable quantity of tea and sugar for the sick, in case any should be seized with that dreadful disorder, which rendered ship provisions loathsome to Capt. James’s men, who were constrained to winter in Charlton Island in 1632. These men fell sick and had sore mouths, and could neither eat beef, pork, fish, nor potage; the Surgeon was every morning and evening obliged to pick their teeth, and cut away the pieces of rotten flesh from their gums, yet they could eat nothing but bread pounded in a mortar, and fried in oil, on which they subsisted for several months. In case of accidents of this kind, and that tea should fail to answer the purposes of nourishment, a quantity of portable soup was likewise provided. And to compleat the whole, a stock of warm cloathing was laid in, consisting of six fearnought jackets for each man, two milled caps, two pair of fearnought trowsers, four pair of milled stockings, and an excellent pair of boots, with a dozen pair of milled mitts, two cotton shirts, and two handkerchiefs.

Thus equipped and provided, the command of the Race Horse was given to the Hon. Constantine Phipps, as Commodore, and that of the Carcarse to Capt. Skiffington Lutwych; the first mounting eight six pounders and fourteen swivels, burthen three hundred and fifty tons; the latter four six pounders and fourteen swivels, burthen three hundred tons.

Thus being premised, let us now proceed to the Journal of the Voyage.