A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels Volume Xviii Part 23

One of the most celebrated men engaged in the Russian discoveries in the early part of the eighteenth century was Behring: he was a Dane by birth, but in the service of Catherine, the widow of Peter the Great, who fixed upon him to carry into execution one of the most favourite plans of her husband. During Peter's residence in Holland, in the year 1717, the Dutch, who were still disposed to believe that a pa.s.sage might be discovered to the East Indies in the northern parts of America, or Asia, urged the Emperor to send out an expedition to determine this point. There was also another point, less interesting indeed to commercial men, but on which geographers had bestowed much labour, which it was stated to the Emperor might be ascertained by the same expedition; this was, whether Asia and America were united, or divided by a sea, towards their northern extremities.

When Peter the Great returned to Russia, he resolved to attempt the solution of these problems; and with his own hand drew up a set of instructions for the proposed voyage; according to these, the vessels to be employed were to be built in Kamschatka; the unknown coasts of Asia and America were to be explored, and an accurate journal was to be kept.

It is not known whether the Emperor was induced to plan this expedition solely on the representations which were made to him in Holland, or from a belief that the close vicinity of the two continents of Asia and America had already been ascertained, or at least rendered highly probable, by some of his own subjects. It is certain that the Russians and the Cossacks in their service had reached the great promontory of Asia opposite to America; and it is said that the islands lying in Behring Straits, and even the continent beyond them, were known to them by report.

Peter, however, did not live to accomplish his design; and, as we have already noticed, his widow Catherine fixed upon Behring to conduct the expedition. After building a vessel in Kamschatka, he sailed in 1728: his first object was to examine the coast of this part of Asia. He was the first who ascertained Kamschatka to be a peninsula, and he framed an accurate chart of it, which is still regarded as one of the best extant.

After reaching a Cape in north lat.i.tude 67 18', and being informed by the inhabitants that beyond it the coast bended to the west, he resolved to alter his course to the south. This was accordingly done, but he did not discover the opposite coast of America; several circ.u.mstances were noticed, however, which indicated that there was land to the east, at no great distance, such as floating pine branches and other species of plants, unknown on the coast of Asia; these were always driven ash.o.r.e when easterly winds prevailed. The inhabitants also informed him, that, in very clear weather, they were able, from the top of their highest mountains, to descry land to the east.

Encouraged by these circ.u.mstances, Behring resolved to undertake a second voyage from Kamschatka: in this voyage he was accompanied by a Russian, named Tchirikoff. They steered east, and first sought for land, which was said to have been discovered between the lat.i.tude of 40 and 50; but finding none, they separated, and steering further north, the Russian discovered the continent of America in about 56-1/2, and Behring 2 further north. On his return, the latter was wrecked in the island which bears his name, where he died.

About four years after the death of this navigator, which happened in 1741, the sea between Asia and America was visited by some Russian merchants, who obtained permission from the government to make discoveries, hunt and trade; the vessels employed for this purpose were formed of a few boards fastened together with leathern thongs; yet in these were discovered the Aleutian Islands. Soon afterwards another group of islands were discovered; and then a third group, the Black Fox Islands, which are near the American continent. It was not, however, till the year 1760, that the Russians learnt that Ochotsk was only separated from America by a narrow strait; and it is said that in 1764, a Russian mercantile company sent out some vessels, which pa.s.sed through a strait to some inhabited islands in 64 north lat.i.tude; these were supposed to belong to the continent of America; but if a strait was discovered by these adventurers, there must be an error in the lat.i.tude, as in 64 there is no opening known to exist.

It was reserved for an English navigator to ascertain the truth of the report which the Russians had received from the inhabitants of Ochotsk, that their country was separated from America only by a narrow strait.

This was done during the third and last voyage of Captain Cook; the princ.i.p.al design of which was to ascertain the existence and practicability of a pa.s.sage between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, either to the north-east or north-west. For this purpose he carefully examined the north- west coast of America, beginning this examination in the lat.i.tude of 44 33' north. Previously to this voyage an act of Parliament was pa.s.sed, granting a reward of 20,000_l_. to any person who should discover any northern pa.s.sage by sea between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, in any parallel to the northward of the 52 of northern lat.i.tude. This voyage of Cook began in 1778; on the 9th of August, in that year, he ascertained the position and lat.i.tude of the western extremity of America, and soon afterwards he determined the width of that strait which divides the two continents. He then steered to the north, and continuing up the strait till he was in the lat.i.tude 70 41', he found himself close to the edge of the ice which "was as compact as a wall," and ten or twelve feet high. He was of course obliged to return to the south, and in this part of his voyage he observed, on the American side, a low point in lat.i.tude 70 29', to which he gave the name of Icy Cape. After the death of Cook, Captain Clarke entered the strait on the Asiatic side, and reached the lat.i.tude of 70 33'; he afterwards got sight of the land on the American side in lat.i.tude 69 34'. Such were the results of the last voyage of Captain Cook, respecting the proximity of Asia and America, and the nature of the strait by which they were divided.

Although the Spaniards seemed to be most interested in whatever concerned the west coast of America, yet they made no attempt to explore it from the commencement of the seventeenth century till the year 1774. In 1769, indeed, being alarmed at the evident design of the Russians to settle in the north-west coast, they formed establishments at St. Diego and Montory.

In 1774 they traced the American coast from lat.i.tude 53 53' to lat.i.tude 55, and it is said discovered Nootka Sound. In the following year an expedition was sent from St. Blas, which proceeded along the north-west coast, and reached to lat.i.tude 57 58'.

The voyage of Cook roused the Russian government to further exertions; and they accordingly fitted out an expedition to explore the sea between Asia and America: the command of it was given to an Englishman of the name of Billings, who had served as a petty officer under Captain Cook. He was, however, by no means qualified for his situation, and abandoned the enterprise in the latter end of July, having proceeded only a few leagues beyond Cape Barrenoi: the whole amount of the information procured during this voyage being confined to a few of the Aleutian Islands, and some points in the coast of America and Asia.

A few years afterwards the Empress Catherine sent out a secret expedition; the princ.i.p.al object of which was to ascertain the situation of the islands between the two continents. Little is known respecting this expedition, except that some observations were made on Behring's Straits, which, however, were not pa.s.sed. The distance between the continents was estimated at forty-eight miles.

About the same time, the great profits which it was expected would be derived from the fur trade on the north-west coast of America, induced several commercial vessels to visit it; and during their voyages, nearly all the parts of it which had not been visited by Cook, were examined as far as the inlet which was named after him, in lat.i.tude 61 15'. This extent of coast was found to consist of a vast chain of islands; and the appearance and nature of it revived the hope which Cook's last voyage had extinguished, that in this part of the coast there might be a practicable pa.s.sage from the Pacific to the Atlantic ocean.

This hope was again extinguished in the opinion of most people, by the result of two of the most celebrated voyages which have been performed since the death of Captain Cook: we allude to the voyages of La Perouse, and of Vancouver: the former sailed with two frigates from Brest on the 1st of August, 1785: the object of this voyage was very comprehensive and important, being no less than to fill up whatever had been left deficient or obscure by former navigators, and to determine whatever was doubtful, so as to render the geography of the globe as complete and minute as possible: he was directed to supply the island in the South Seas with useful European vegetables. At present we shall confine our notice of this voyage to what relates to the more immediate object of this part of our work, the coast of North-west America.

The north-west coast of America was made by La Perouse, in lat.i.tude sixty degrees north: from this lat.i.tude he carefully traced and examined it to the Spanish settlement of Monterey.--an extent of coast of which Cook had had only a transient and imperfect view. Of this he constructed a chart, which at the time was justly regarded as extremely accurate and complete, but was subsequently rendered much more so by the survey of particular points and bays made by the vessels engaged in the fur trade, and especially by that which was constructed by Vancouver, from a close and careful examination of the numerous channels with which this coast abounds, princ.i.p.ally performed in boats, and therefore descending into very minute details.

The accessions made by him to geography in other parts of the globe, as well as his unfortunate fate, will be afterwards related.

In the year 1790, a dispute arose between Britain and Spain, respecting Nootka Sound: on the adjustment of this dispute, the British government determined to send out an officer to secure possession of the settlement, and also to determine the question respecting the existence of a navigable pa.s.sage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Captain Vancouver was selected for these purposes: his instructions were, after accomplis.h.i.+ng his mission at Nootka Sound, to examine that part of the coast occupied by the chain of islands, discovered by the vessels in the fur trade, "and to ascertain, with the greatest exact.i.tude, the nature and extent of every communication by water which might seem to tend to facilitate commercial relations between the north-west coast and the countries on the east of the continent, inhabited by British subjects or claimed by Great Britain;" and in particular to search for the strait of John de Fuca, and to examine if Cook's River had not its source in some of the lakes frequented by the Canadian traders, or by the servants of the Hudson's Bay Company.

He sailed from England with a sloop and brig on the 1st of April, 1791. He began his examination of the west coast of America, in lat.i.tude 39 27'

north, and continued it as far as Nootka: finding that the Spaniards raised difficulties to the restoration of this settlement, he proceeded to carry into execution the other objects of this voyage. During three summers, he surveyed the north-west coast of America as far as Cook's River, with a diligence, attention, and accuracy which could not have been surpa.s.sed.

Every opening which presented itself was explored, and never left till its termination was determined; so that on a very careful and minute inspection of every creek and inlet of a coast consisting almost entirely of creeks and channels, formed by an innumerable mult.i.tude of islands, he thought himself justified in p.r.o.nouncing, that there is no navigable pa.s.sage between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, unless there may be a possibility of sailing through the strait between Asia and America, and navigating the Frozen Ocean. The surveys which were made during this voyage, may justly be said to have rendered perfect the geography of that part of the north-west coast of America to which it extended, and indeed to have completed the whole geography of this coast, which, from the mult.i.tude of its creeks, inlets, islands, &c., presents formidable as well as petty and troublesome difficulties in the way of its accurate and complete survey. Captain Vancouver, however, was extremely fortunate in the weather which attended him during the whole of the three summers which he spent on this coast.

Upwards of twenty years elapsed after the voyage of Vancouver, before another attempt was made to find out a pa.s.sage from the north Pacific into the Atlantic Ocean. This attempt proceeded from Russia: not however from the government, but an individual. Count Romanzoff, a Russian n.o.bleman, is well known for his liberal and judicious encouragement of every thing which can promote useful knowledge, especially in what relates to the improvement and benefit of his country. His first design was to fit out an expedition to explore the north-west pa.s.sage by Hudson's Bay or Davis' Straits; but learning that the British government were making preparations to attempt it by that route, he changed his plan, and resolved to fit out an expedition to attempt the discovery of a pa.s.sage from the eastward.

A s.h.i.+p was accordingly built and equipped, and the command given to Lieutenant Kotzebue. He sailed from Russia in the autumn of 1815, and on the 19th of June in the following year he reached Kamschatka. This he left on the 15th of July and on the 20th of that month, Behring's Islands were seen to the northward of Cape Prince of Wales. A tract of low land was ascertained to be an island about seven miles long, and a mile across, in the widest part: beyond it was a deep inlet running eastward into the continent. Lieutenant Kotzebue, animated and encouraged by this appearance, proceeded in a northerly direction, and found that the land continued low, and tended more to the eastwards. On the 1st of August the entrance into a broad inlet was discovered, into which the current ran very rapidly. The opening of this inlet was known before, and is indeed laid down in the charts attached to Marchand's Voyage round the World; but Kotzebue is certainly the first person who explained it. As it was perfectly calm when he reached this inlet, he resolved to go on sh.o.r.e, and examine from some eminence the direction of the coast. "We landed," he observes, "without difficulty, near a hill, which I immediately ascended; from the summit I could no where perceive land in the strait: the high mountains to the north either formed islands, or were a coast by themselves; for that the two coasts could not be connected together was evident, even from the very great difference between this very low and that remarkably high land. It was my intention to continue the survey of the coast in the boats, but a number of baydares coming to us along the coast from the east, withheld me." He afterwards had an interview with the Americans who came in these baydares: he found that they prized tobacco very highly, and that they received this and other European goods from the natives of the opposite coast of Asia. It was probably the first time in their lives that these Americans had seen Europeans. They were of the middle size; robust and healthy; ugly and dirty; with small eyes, and very high cheek bones: "they bore holes on each side of their mouths, in which they wear morse bones, ornamented with blue gla.s.s beads, which give them a most frightful appearance. Their dresses, which are made of skins, are of the same cut as the Parka, in Kamtschatka; only that there they reach to the feet, and here hardly cover the knee: besides this, they wear pantaloons, and small half boots of seal skins."

The lat.i.tude of this place, or rather of the s.h.i.+p's anchorage, at the time this survey was made, was 66 42' 30", and the longitude 164 12' 50".

There were several circ.u.mstances which induced Kotzebue to hope that he had at length found the channel which led to the Atlantic: nothing was seen but sea to the eastward, and a strong current ran to the north-east. Under these circ.u.mstances, thirteen days were occupied in examining the sh.o.r.es of this opening; but no outlet was discovered, except one to the south-east, which seemed to communicate with Norton Sound, and a channel on the western side, which of course could not be the one sought for. Kotzebue, however, remarks, "I certainly hope that this sound may lead to important discoveries next year; and though a north-east pa.s.sage may not with certainty be depended on, yet I believe I shall be able to penetrate much farther to the east, as the land has very deep indentures." The name of Kotzebue's Sound was given to this inlet. Next year he returned to prosecute his discovery; but in consequence of an accident which happened to the s.h.i.+p, and a very dangerous blow which he received at the same time, he abandoned the attempt.

That there is an opening, either by Kotzebue's Inlet or near to it, to the Frozen Ocean, is probable, not only from the circ.u.mstances we have mentioned of an opening and a strong current to the north-east having been observed, but also from other circ.u.mstances noticed in the account of this voyage. This current brings large quant.i.ties of drift wood into Kotzebue's Sound: and in the breaking up of the ice in the sea of Kamschatka, the icebergs and fields of ice do not drift, as in the Atlantic, to the south, nor do they drive to the Atlantic islands, but into the strait to the north. The direction of the current was always north-east in Behring's Straits; and it was so strong and rapid, as to carry the s.h.i.+p fifty miles in twenty-four hours; that is, above two miles an hour. On the Asiatic side of the strait it ran at the rate of three miles an hour; and even with a fresh north wind, it ran equally strong from the south. The inference drawn by Kotzebue is as follows: "The constant north-east direction of the current in Behring's Straits, proves that the water meets with no opposition, and consequently a pa.s.sage must exist, though perhaps not adapted to navigation. Observations have long been made, that the current in Baffin's Bay runs to the south; and thus no doubt can remain that the ma.s.s of water which flows into Behring's Straits takes its course round America, and returns through Baffin's Bay into the Ocean."

In 1819 the Russian government sent out another expedition, whose object was to trace the continent of America to the northward and eastward. In July, 1820, they reached Behring's Straits, and were supposed to have pa.s.sed them in that year; in the winter they returned to some of the Russian settlements on the coast of America: what they have since done or discovered is not known.

Such is the result of what has. .h.i.therto been discovered by sea, with respect to the contiguity of Asia and America, the northern parts of these continents, and the probability of a pa.s.sage from the Pacific to the Atlantic.

Very lately some attempts have been made to reach the north-eastern extremity of Asia by land. "In February, 1821, Baron Wrangel, an officer of great merit and of considerable science, left his head-quarters in the Nishney Kolyma, to settle by astronomical observations the position of Shatatzkoi Noss, or the North-east Cape of Asia, which he found to lie in lat.i.tude 70 5' north, considerably lower than it is usually placed in the maps. Having crossed this point, he undertook the hazardous enterprize of crossing the ice of the Polar Sea, on sledges drawn by dogs, in search of the land said to have been discovered in 1762 to the northward of the Kolyma, He travelled directly north eighty miles, without perceiving any thing but a field of interminable ice, the surface of which had now become so broken and uneven, as to prevent a further prosecution of his journey.

He had gone far enough, however, to ascertain that no such land had ever been discovered." (Quarterly Review, No. LII. p. 342.)

Another attempt, still more extraordinary and hazardous, has lately been made to explore the north-east of Asia, and particularly to determine whether the two continents of Asia and America do not unite at the North-east Cape, or in some other point. This enterprize was undertaken by Henry Dundas Cochrane, a commander in the British navy; who received a.s.surances from the Russian government that he should not be molested on his journey; that he should receive any a.s.sistance, protection, and facilities he should require; and that he might join an expedition sent by the Russian government toward the Pole, if he should meet it, and accompany it as far as he might be inclined. He left Petersburgh in the beginning of the summer of 1820, and in one hundred and twenty-three days reached the Baikal, having traversed eight thousand versts of country, at the rate of forty-three miles a day. He seems afterwards to have gone as far as the Altai Mountains, on the frontiers of China. As, however, his princ.i.p.al object was to explore the extreme north-east of Asia, he went down the Lena, and reached Jakutzk on the 16th of October, 1820. On the Kolyma, where he arrived on the 30th of December, in longitude 164, he met the Russian polar expedition. From Jakutzk to this place he travelled four hundred miles, without meeting a single human being. At the fair held at Tchutski, whither he next directed his steps, he received much information respecting the northeast of Asia. He ascertained the existence of this cape; all doubts, he says, being now solved, not by calculation, but by ocular demonstration. Its lat.i.tude and longitude, are well ascertained: he places this cape half a degree more to the northward than Baron Wrangel; but it is doubtful whether he himself reached it, and if he did, whether he had the means of fixing its lat.i.tude, or whether he depends entirely on the information he received at the fair of Tchutski. His expressions, in a letter to the President of the Royal Society, are, "No land is considered to exist to the northward of it. The east side of the Noss is composed of bold and perpendicular cliffs, while the west side exhibits gradual declivities; the whole most sterile, but presenting an awfully magnificent appearance." From the fair he seems to have returned to Kolyma, and thence proceeded to Okotsk, a dangerous, difficult, and fatiguing journey of three thousand versts, a great part performed on foot, in seventy days. From this last place he proceeded to Kamschatka, where it is supposed he was obliged to terminate his investigations, in consequence of an order or intimation from the Russian government not to proceed further.

We must next direct our attention to what has been done since the commencement of the eighteenth century, toward discovering a pa.s.sage in the north-east of America, from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.

One of the conditions on which the Hudson's Bay Company obtained their charter, in the year 1670, from Charles II., was, that they should prosecute their discoveries; but so far from doing this, they are accused, and with great appearance of reason, of not only suffering their ardour for discovery to cool, but also of endeavouring to conceal, as much as possible, the true situation and nature of the coast about Hudson's Bay, partly in order to secure more effectually their monopoly, and partly from the dread they entertained, that if a pa.s.sage to the Pacific were discovered by this route, government would recal their charter, and grant it to the East India Company. They were indeed roused, but very ineffectively, from their torpor, by one of their captains intimating, that if they refused to fulfill the terms of their charter, by making discoveries, and extending their trade, he would himself apply to the crown. In order to silence him, they sent him and another captain out in two vessels, in 1719 or 1720; but they both perished, it is supposed, near Marble Island, without effecting any thing.

Two years afterwards they sent out another s.h.i.+p under the command of a person, who, dest.i.tute of the requisite knowledge and enterprize, was totally unfit for such an undertaking: the result was such as might have been antic.i.p.ated--nothing was effected. An interval of twenty years pa.s.sed over, and the company again sank into apathy on the subject of a north-west pa.s.sage, when the attention of government was directed to the subject by the enthusiasm of an Irish gentleman of the name of Dobbs. Having well considered what preceding navigators had ascertained, and especially the remarkable circ.u.mstance particularly noticed by Fox, that the farther he removed from Sir Thomas Roe's Welcome the smaller was the height to which the tide rose, and who thence inferred, that if a pa.s.sage were practicable, it must be in this direction, this gentleman applied to the company to send out a vessel. Accordingly, a vessel was sent; but all that is known of this voyage, and probably all that was done, amounts merely to this, that the vessel reached 62 30' north lat.i.tude: here they saw a number of islands, and of white whales, and ascertained that the tide rose ten or twelve feet, and came from the north.

Mr. Dobbs next applied to government, who at his request sent out two vessels under Captain Middleton. But Middleton, who had been in the service of the company for many voyages, returned after having sailed up the Welcome to Wager's River, and looked into, or perhaps sailed round, a bay, which he named Repulse Bay. Mr. Dobbs accused him of having misrepresented or concealed his discoveries; and there seems good ground for such an accusation, which indeed was confirmed by the evidence of his officers, and not explicitly denied by himself. Government was undoubtedly of opinion that the voyage of Middleton had not determined the non-existence or impracticability of a pa.s.sage; for the next year an act of parliament was pa.s.sed, granting a reward of 20,000_l_. to the person or persons who should discover a northwest pa.s.sage through Hudson's Straits to the western and southern ocean of America.

Stimulated by the hope of obtaining this large sum, a company was formed, who raised 10,000_l_., in shares of 100l., with which they fitted out two s.h.i.+ps; the Dobbs, commanded by Captain More; and the California, by Captain Smith. They sailed from London on the 20th of May, 1746. When they reached the American coast near Marble Island, they made some observations on the tides, which they found flowed from the north-east, and consequently followed the direction of the coast; they likewise ascertained that the tide rose to the height of ten feet. While they were in their winter quarters at Port Jackson, they received little or no a.s.sistance from the servants of the Hudson's Bay Company. On resuming their voyage, and reaching the vicinity of Knight's Island, the needles of their compa.s.ses lost their magnetic quality, which they did not recover till they were kept warm. Proceeding northwards, they examined Wager's Strait; but in consequence of a difference of opinion between the commanders, they returned to England. The only points ascertained by this voyage were, that Wager's Strait was a deep bay, or inlet, and that there existed another inlet, which, however, they did not explore to the termination, named by them Chesterfield's Inlet. The fresh buffalo's flesh, which was sold to them by the Esquimaux, was probably the flesh of the musk ox.

After this voyage nothing was done, either by the Hudson's Bay Company, government, or individuals, towards the exploring of a pa.s.sage in the north, till the year 1762, when the company, coinciding with the opinion that was then prevalent, that Chesterfield's Inlet ought to be examined, as affording a fair prospect of a pa.s.sage into the Pacific Ocean, sent a vessel to determine this point. The report of the captain, on his return, was, that he had sailed up the inlet in a westerly direction for more than one hundred and fifty miles, till he found the water perfectly fresh; but he acknowledged that he did not go farther, or reach the head of it. As the result of this voyage was deemed unsatisfactory, still leaving the point which it had been its object to determine doubtful, the same captain was again sent out, in company with another s.h.i.+p, with express directions to trace the inlet to its western limits, if practicable. They ascertained that the fresh water, which had been discovered in the former voyage, was that of a river, which was the outlet of a lake, and this lake they explored; it was twenty-four miles long, and six or seven broad; they likewise found a river flowing into the lake from the west, but they were prevented from exploring it to any great distance by falls, that intercepted the progress of their boats. These particulars are detailed in Goldson's Observations on the Pa.s.sage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans; the voyages themselves were never published, do not seem to be generally known, and have escaped the notice of Forster, the author of the History of Voyages and Discoveries in the North. Forster is likewise silent respecting an expedition that was equipped and sent out by some gentlemen of Virginia in 1772, to attempt a north-west pa.s.sage. The captain on his return reported that he reached a large bay in lat.i.tude 69 11', which he supposed hitherto unknown; that from the course of the tides, he thought it probable there might be a pa.s.sage through it, but that as this bay was seldom free from ice, the pa.s.sage could seldom if ever be practicable.

In the year 1770 the Hudson's Bay Company, more alive to the prospect of gain than to the interests of discovery and geographical science, having received some information from the Indians that copper might be obtained in great quant.i.ty far to the west of Fort Prince of Wales, resolved to dispatch Mr. Hearne, belonging to that fort, in search of it. This gentleman made four different excursions for this purpose, but it was only during the fourth that he reached to any great distance from the fort. In this excursion he penetrated to what he conceived to be the mouth of the Coppermine River, in the Frozen Ocean, about the lat.i.tude of 72 north.

According to his account, Chesterfield Inlet is not the north-west pa.s.sage, and the American continent stretches very considerably to the north-west of Hudson's Bay. The whole extent of his journey was about thirteen hundred miles. It was however doubted, whether what he deemed to be the mouth of the Coppermine River was actually such. It is certainly singular, that though he staid there for twenty-four hours, he did not actually ascertain the height to which the tide rose, but judged at that circ.u.mstance from the marks on the edge of the ice. There are other points in the printed account, as well as discrepancies between that and his MS., which tended to withhold implicit belief from his a.s.sertion, that he had reached the Frozen Ocean.

In the year 1789 the North-west Company having received information from an Indian, that there was at no great distance from Montreal, to the northward, a river which ran into the sea, Mr. M'Kenzie, one of the partners of that company, resolved to ascertain the truth of this report, by going himself on an expedition for that purpose. He set out, attended by a few Indians; and after traversing the desert and inhospitable country in which the posts of the company are established, he reached a river which ran to the north. He followed the course of this river till he arrived at what he conceived to be the Frozen Ocean, were he saw some small whales among the ice, and determined the rise and fall of the tide. This river was called after him, Mackenzie's River, and to the island he gave the name of Whale Island. This island is in lat.i.tude 69 14'.

In 1793 Mr. M'Kenzie again set out on an inland voyage of geographical and commercial discovery, taking with him the requisite astronomical instruments and a chronometer. His course he directed to the west. After travelling one hundred miles on foot, he and his companions embarked on a river, running westward, which conveyed them to an inlet of the Pacific Ocean. Here he observed the rise and fall of the tide, and saw porpoises and sea otters. The claim of the discovery of the Frozen Ocean by a north-west route, to which Mr. M'Kenzie lays claim, has been questioned, as well as Mr. Hearne's claim. It has been remarked, that he might have ascertained beyond a doubt whether he had actually reached the sea, by simply dipping his finger into the water, and ascertaining whether it was salt or not. The account he gives of the rise of the tides at the mouth of Mackenzie River serves also to render it very doubtful whether he had reached the ocean; this rise he does not estimate greater than sixteen or eighteen inches. On the whole, we may conclude, that if Mr. Hearne actually traced the Coppermine River to its entrance into the sea, or Mr. M'Kenzie the river that bears his name, they have not been sufficiently explicit in their proofs that such was really the case.

At the time when the British government sent out Captain Cooke on his last voyage of discovery, Lieutenant Pickersgill was also sent out by them, to examine the western parts of Baffin's Bay, but he never entered the bay.

Government were equally unfortunate in their choice of Lieutenant Young, who was sent with the same object the following year: he reached no farther than the seventy-second degree of lat.i.tude; and instead of sailing along the western side of the bay, which is generally free from ice, he clung to the eastern side, to which the ice is always firmly attached. Indeed, if Dr. Douglas's character of him was just, he was ill fitted for the enterprize on which he was sent; for his talents, he observes, were more adapted to contribute to the glory of a victory, as commander of a line-of-battle s.h.i.+p, than to add to geographical discoveries by encountering mountains of ice, and exploring unknown coasts.

Notwithstanding the unsuccessful issue of all these attempts to discover a north-west pa.s.sage, the existence and practicability of it still were cherished by many geographers, who had particularly studied the subject.

Indeed, nothing had resulted from any of the numerous voyages to the Hudson's or Baffin's Bay, which in the smallest degree rendered the existence of such a pa.s.sage unlikely. Among those scientific men who cherished the idea of such a pa.s.sage with the most enthusiasm and confidence, and who brought to the investigation the most extensive and minute knowledge of all that had been done, was Mr. Dalrymple, hydrographer to the Admiralty. "He had long been of opinion, that not only Greenland, but all the land seen by Baffin on the northern and eastern sides of the great bay bearing his name, was composed of cl.u.s.ters of islands, and that a pa.s.sage through the _Fretum Davis_, round the northern extremity of c.u.mberland Island, led directly to the North Sea, from the seventy to the seventy-first degree of lat.i.tude." This opinion of Mr. Dalrymple was grounded, in part at least, on the authority of an old globe, one of the first constructed in Britain, preserved in the library of the Inner Temple: this globe contains all the discoveries of our early navigators. Davis refers to it; and Hackluyt, in his edition of 1589, describes it "as a very large and most exact terrestrial globe, collected and reformed according to the newest, secretest, and latest discoveries, both Spanish, Portugal, and English, composed by Mr. Emmeric Molyneaux, of Lambeth, a rare gentleman in his profession, being therein for diverse years greatly supported by the purse and liberality of the wors.h.i.+pful merchant Mr. William Sanderson."

Mr. Dalrymple prevailed on the Hudson's Bay Company to send out Mr. Duncan, a master in the navy, who had displayed considerable talent on a voyage to Nootka Sound. This gentleman was very sanguine of success, and very zealous in the cause in which he was employed. But this attempt also was unsuccessful: Mr. Duncan, after a considerable lapse of time, reaching no farther than Chesterfield Inlet.

The attention of scientific men, and of the public at large, was called again to this important problem in the geography of the northern seas, by some elaborate and well informed articles in the Quarterly Review, which are generally supposed to be written by Mr. Barrow, the under secretary of the Admiralty, who also published an abstract of voyages to the Northern Ocean.

The British government, influenced by a very laudable love of science, and perhaps regarding the discovery of a north-west pa.s.sage as of the same importance to commerce as the reviewer evidently did, resolved to send an expedition for the purpose of attempting the discovery. Accordingly, on the 8th of April 1818, two s.h.i.+ps, the Isabella and Alexander, well fitted by their construction, as well as strengthened and prepared in every possible manner for such a voyage, sailed from the Thames. Captain Ross had the princ.i.p.al command. It is not our design here to follow them during their voyage to their destination: suffice it to say, that on the 18th of August, exactly four months after they sailed from the Thames, the s.h.i.+ps pa.s.sed Cape Dudley Digges, the lat.i.tude of which they found to agree nearly with that a.s.signed to it by Baffin, thus affording another proof of the accuracy of that old navigator, whose alleged discoveries have been latterly attempted to be wrested from him, or rather been utterly denied. The same day they pa.s.sed an inlet, to which Baffin had given the name of Wolstenholme Sound. Captain Ross, in his account of his voyage, says it was completely blocked up with ice; but in the view taken of it, and published by him, there is a deep and wide opening, completely free from ice. In fact, on this occasion, as well as others of more consequence, to which we shall presently advert, Captain Ross, unfortunately for the accomplishment of the object on which he was sent, contented himself with conjecture where proof was accessible; for all he remarks respecting this sound is, that it seemed to be eighteen or twenty leagues in depth, and the land on the east side appeared to be habitable. When it is considered that in these high and foggy lat.i.tudes much deception of sight takes place, it ought to be the absolute and undeviating rule of the navigator to explore so far, and to examine so carefully and closely, that he may be certain, at least, that his sight does not deceive him. The same negligence attended the examination of Whale Sound: all the notice of it is, that they could not approach it in a direct line, on account of ice; it was, in fact, never approached nearer than twenty leagues. Captain Ross does not seem to have been fully sensible of the nature of the object on which he was sent out.

If there existed a pa.s.sage at all, it must be in a strait, sound, or some other opening of the sea: it could exist no where else. Every such opening, which exhibited the least appearance, or the smallest symptoms of stretching far, especially if it stretched in the proper direction, ought to have been practically and closely examined, not merely viewed at a distance in a foggy atmosphere. As for the impediments, they were what were to be expected, what the s.h.i.+ps were sent out to meet and overcome; and till persevering and even highly hazardous efforts had proved that they could not be overcome, they ought not to have been suffered to weigh the least with the captain or his men, and especially not with the former.

But to proceed: about midnight on the 19th of August, the sound described by Baffin to be the largest of all the sounds he discovered, and called by him Sir Thomas Smith's Sound, was distinctly seen; and the two capes which formed its entrance were called by Captain Ross after the two s.h.i.+ps Isabella and Alexander. "I considered," he informs us, "the bottom of this sound to be about eighteen leagues distant, but its entrance was completely blocked up by ice." Here again, a sound which seemed to promise fair to lead them into the great Polar Sea was left undiscovered, and in fact unapproached; for at the distance of eighteen leagues, in that deceptive climate, nothing could be really known of its real state or practicability.

Had Captain Ross made the attempt; had he spent but a couple of days, and actually encountered serious obstacles, even though he had not experienced that those obstacles were insurmountable, he would have had some excuse; but it is impossible not to censure him for approaching no nearer than eighteen leagues to a sound such as this, and p.r.o.nouncing at this distance that the ice blocked it up completely. His reasoning to support his belief that this sound afforded no pa.s.sage, and to defend his not having explored it, is weak and inconclusive; but we shall not examine it, because the commander to whom such an expedition is entrusted, should never reason, where he can prove by actual observation and experiment. It is unsafe in him to reason, because he will most a.s.suredly be tempted to make his line of conduct bend to his hypothesis and reasoning.

Captain Ross returned down the western side of Baffin's Bay. On the 21st an opening was seen, which answered to the description of Alderman Jones Sound, given by Baffin; but here again the ice and fog prevented them from approaching near; as if the fog might not have cleared up in a day or two, and the ice might not either have been drifted off in as short a s.p.a.ce, or, if it could not, have been pa.s.sed by the crew, so far, at least, as to have gained a nearer and better view of this sound.

Baffin describes this sound as a large inlet, and adds, that the coast tended to the southward, and had the appearance of a bay. This is confirmed by Captain Ross; for he informs us that the land was observed to take a southerly direction. On the 28th of August the sea became more clear of ice, and no bottom was found with three hundred fathoms of line: in the afternoon of that day they succeeded in getting completely clear of the ice, and once more found themselves in the open sea. Baffin and Davis both mention that the northern parts of Baffin's Bay were clear of ice when they were there, so that it is probably generally the case. On the 29th a wide opening was descried in the land; this they entered on the following day.

"On each side was a chain of high mountains; and in the s.p.a.ce between, W.

S.W., there appeared a yellow sky, but no land was seen, nor was there any ice on the water, except a few icebergs; the opening therefore took the appearance of a channel, the entrance of which was judged to be forty-five miles; the land on the north side lying in an E.N.E. and W.S.W.

direction, and the south side nearly east and west." "As the evening closed, the wind died away, the weather became mild and warm, the water much smoother, and the atmosphere clear and serene."

Even those who are little acquainted with the symptoms which in this high lat.i.tude indicate an open sea, must be struck with the wide difference between these circ.u.mstances and those which had met the navigators in almost every other part of their voyage, since they had approached the place where a pa.s.sage might possibly exist and be found. Yet, even at this time and place, when expectation must have been high, and not without good reason, and when we are expressly informed by Captain Ross that much interest was excited by the appearance of the sound, the attempt to ascertain, by close and accurate investigation, whether this sound was really closed at its extremity, or led into another sea, was given up, after having sailed into it during the night, and till three o'clock the following day. It is unnecessary here to examine the reasons which induced Captain Ross to leave this sound without putting the question of its nature and termination beyond a doubt, by an accurate and close survey. He says, that at three o'clock he distinctly saw the land round the bottom of the bay, forming a connected chain of mountains with those which extended along the north and south sides. No person seems to have been on deck when this land was seen by the captain, and orders in consequence given to put the s.h.i.+ps about, except Mr. Lewis, the master, and another. So that in this lat.i.tude, where the sight at all times is mocked with fogs and other circ.u.mstances which mislead it, and where, therefore, it is absolutely necessary that as many eyes as possible should be employed, that these should get as near the object as possible, that it should be viewed for a considerable length of time, and under as many aspects, and from as many points as possible--not a subordinate or incidental design of the voyage, but that for which it was expressly made, was abandoned, and on the sole responsibility of the captain and two other persons.