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comfort in sickness, keep thy mind and body free, save thee from many perils, relieve thee in thy-elder years, relieve the poor and thy honest friends, and give means to thy posterity to live, and defend themselves and thine own fame. Where it is said in the Proverbs, That he shall be sore vexed that is surety for a stranger, and he that hateth suretyship is sure;' it is further said, "Th. poor is hated even of his own neighbour, but the rich have many friends.' Lend not to him that is mightier than thyself, for if thou lendest him, count it but lost; be not surety above thy power, for if thou be surety, think to pay it.

RICHARD GRAFTON.

his trade, and his studies were suspended till the bounty of Dr Parker, archbishop of Canterbury, enabled him again to prosecute them. In 1565 he published his Summary of English Chronicles, dedicated to the Earl of Leicester, at whose request the work was undertaken. Parker's death, in 1575, materially reduced his income, but he still managed to continue his researches, to which his whole time and energies were now devoted. At length, in 1598, appeared his Survey of London, the best known of his writings, and which has served as the groundwork of all subsequent histories of the metropolis. There was another work, his large Chronicle, or History of England, on which forty years' labour had been bestowed, which he was very desirous to pubWe now revert to a useful, though less brilliant, lish; but of this he succeeded in printing only an class of writers, the English chroniclers; a continu- abstract, entitled Flores Historiarum, or Annals of ous succession of whom was kept up during the England (1600). A volume published from his papers period of which we are now treating. The first who after his death, entitled Stow's Chronicle, does not attracts our attention is RICHARD GRAFTON, an contain the large work now mentioned, which, though individual who, in addition to the craft of author- left by him fit for the press, seems to have somehow ship, practised the typographical art in London in gone astray. In his old age he fell into such poverty, the reigns of Henry VIII. and three succeeding as to be driven to solicit charity from the public. monarchs. Being printer to Edward VI., he was Having made application to James I., he received employed, after the death of that king, to prepare the the royal license to repair to churches, or other proclamation which declared the succession of Lady places, to receive the gratuities and charitable beneJane Grey to the crown. For this simply profes-volence of well-disposed people.' It is little to the sional act he was deprived of his patent, and osten- honour of the contemporaries of this worthy and insibly for the same reason committed to prison. While there, or at least while unemployed after the loss of his business, he compiled An Abridgment of the Chronicles of England, published in 1562, and of which a new edition, in two volumes, was published in 1809. Much of this work was borrowed from Hall; and the author, though sometimes referred to as an authority by modern compilers, holds but a low rank among English historians.

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JOHN STOW.

His contemporary, JOHN STоw, enjoys a much higher reputation as an accurate and impartial recorder of public events. This industrious writer was born in London about the year 1525. Being the son of a tailor, he was brought up to that business, but early exhibited a decided turn for antiquarian research. About the year 1560, he formed the design of composing annals of English history, in consequence of which, he for a time abandoned his trade, and travelled on foot through a considerable part of England, for the purpose of examining the historical manuscripts preserved in cathedrals and other public establishments. He also enlarged, as far as his pecuniary resources allowed, his collection of old books and manuscripts, of which there were many scattered through the country, in consequence of the suppression of monasteries by Henry VIII. Necessity, however, compelled him to resume

Stow's Monument in the church of St Andrew under
Shaft, London.

dustrious man, that he should have been thus lite-
rally reduced to beggary. Under the pressure of
want and disease, Stow died in 1605, at the advanced
ries' (London, 1813). The splendid and magnificent abbey of
Malmesbury,' says he, which possessed some of the finest
manuscripts in the kingdom, was ransacked, and its treasures
either sold or burnt to serve the commonest purposes of life.
An antiquary who travelled through that town many years
after the dissolution, relates that he saw broken windows

* Vast numbers of books were at this period wantonly destroyed. A number of them which purchased these superstitious mansions,' says Bishop Bale, reserved of those library books some to serve their jakes, some to scour their candlesticks, and some to rub their boots, and some they sold to the grocers and soap-sellers, and some they sent over sea to bookbinders, not in small numbers, but at times whole ships full. Yea, the universities are not all clear in this detestable fact; but cursed is the belly which seeketh to be fed with so ungodly gains, and so deeply shameth his native country. I know a merchantman (which shall at this time be nameless) that bought the contents of two noble libraries for forty shillings price: a shame it is to be spoken. This stuff hath he occupied instead of grey paper, by the space of more than these ten years, and yet hath he store enough for as many years to come.'-patched up with remnants of the most valuable manuscripts Bale's Declaration, &c., quoted in Collier's Eccles. Hist.' ii. 166. Another illustration is given by the editor of Letters written by Eminent Persons, in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centu

on vellum, and that the bakers had not even then consumed the stores they had accumulated, in heating their ovens !' (Vol. i., p. 278.)

age of eighty years. His works, though possessing few graces of style, have always been esteemed for accuracy and research. He often declared that, in composing them, he had never allowed himself to be swayed either by fear, favour, or malice; but that he had impartially, and to the best of his knowledge, delivered the truth. So highly was his accuracy esteemed by contemporary authors, that Bacon and Camden took statements upon his sole credit. The following extract is taken from the 'Survey of Lon

don:'

[Sports upon the Ice in Elizabeth's Reign.]

When that great moor which washeth Moorfields, at the north wall of the city, is frozen over, great companies of young men go to sport upon the ice; then fetching a run, and setting their feet at a distance, and placing their bodies sidewise, they slide a great way. Others take heaps of ice, as if it were great mill-stones, and make seats; many going before, draw him that sits thereon, holding one another by the hand in going so fast; some slipping with their feet, all fall down together: some are better practised to the ice, and bind to their shoes bones, as the legs of some beasts, and hold stakes in their hands headed with sharp iron, which sometimes they strike against the ice; and these men go on with speed as doth a bird in the air, or darts shot from some warlike engine: sometimes two men set themselves at a distance, and run one against another, as it were at tilt, with these stakes, wherewith one or both parties are thrown down, not without some hurt to their bodies; and after their fall, by reason of the violent motion, are carried a good distance from one another; and wheresoever the ice doth touch their head, it rubs off all the skin, and lays it bare; and if one fall upon his leg or arm, it is usually broken; but young men greedy of honour, and desirous of victory, do thus exercise themselves in counterfeit battles, that they may bear the brunt more strongly when they come to it in good earnest.

RAPHAEL HOLINSHED-WILLIAM HARRISON-JOHN HOOKER-FRANCIS BOTEVILLE.

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Among all the old chroniclers, none is more frequently referred to than RAPHAEL HOLINSHED, of whom, however, almost nothing is known, except that he was a principal writer of the chronicles which bear his name, and that he died about the year 1580. Among his coadjutors were WILLIAM HARRISON, a clergyman, JOHN HOOKER, an uncle of the author of the Ecclesiastical Polity,' and FRANCIS BOTEVILLE, an individual of whom nothing has been recorded, but that he was a man of great learning and judgment, and a wonderful lover of antiquities.' John Stow, also, was among the contributors. Prefixed to the historical portion of the work is a description of Britain and its inhabitants, by William Harrison, which continues to be highly valued, as affording an interesting picture of the state of the country, and manners of the people, in the sixteenth century. This is followed by a history of England to the Norman Conquest, by Holinshed; a history and description of Ireland, by Richard Stauihurst; additional chronicles of Ireland, translated or written by Hooker, Holinshed, and Stanihurst; a description and history of Scotland, mostly translated from Hector Boece, by Holinshed or Harrison; and, lastly, a history of England, by Holinshed, from the Norman Conquest to 1577, when the first edition of the 'Chronicles' was published. In the second edition, which appeared in 1587, several sheets containing matter offensive to the queen and her ministers were omitted; but these have been restored in the excellent edition in six volumes

quarto, published in London in 1807-8. It was from the translation of Boece that Shakspeare derived the ground-work of his tragedy of Macbeth.' As a specimen of these chronicles, we are tempted to quote some of Harrison's sarcastic remarks on the degeneracy of his contemporaries, their extravagance in dress, and the growth of luxury among them. Ilis account of the languages of Britain, however, being peculiarly suited to the object of the present work, and at the same time highly amusing from the quaintness and simplicity of the style, it is here given in preference to any other extract.

[The Languages of Britain.]

The British tongue called Cymric doth yet remain in that part of the island which is now called Wales, whither the Britons were driven after the Saxons had made a full conquest of the other, which we now call England, although the pristine integrity thereof be not a little diminished by mixture of the Latin and Saxon speeches withal. Howbeit, many poesies and writings (in making whereof that nation hath evermore delighted) are yet extant in my time, whereby some difference between the ancient and present language may easily be discerned, notwithstanding that among all these there is nothing to be found which can set down any sound and full testimony of their own original, in remembrance whereof their bards and cunning men have been most slack and negligent.

Next unto the British speech, the Latin tongue was brought in by the Romans, and in manner generally planted through the whole region, as the French was after by the Normans. Of this tongue I will not say much, because there are few which be not skilful in the same. Howbeit, as the speech itself is easy and delectable, so hath it perverted the names of the ancient rivers, regions, and cities of Britain, in such wise, that in these our days their old British denominations are quite grown out of memory, and yet those of the new Latin left as most uncertain. This remaineth, also, unto my time, borrowed from the Romans, that all our deeds, evidences, charters, and writings of record, are set down in the Latin tongue, though now very barbarous, and thereunto the copies and court-rolls, and processes of courts and leets registered in the same.

The third language apparently known is the Scythian,* or High Dutch, induced at the first by the Saxons (which the Britons call Saysonacc,+ as they do the speakers Sayson), a hard and rough kind of speech, God wot, when our nation was brought first into acquaintance withal, but now changed with us into a far more fine and easy kind of utterance, and so polished and helped with new and milder words, that it is to be avouched how there is no one speech under the sun spoken in our time that hath or can have more variety of words, copiousness of phrases, or figures and flowers of eloquence, than hath our English tongue, although some have affirmed us rather to bark as dogs than talk like men, because the most of our words (as they do indeed) incline unto one syllable. This, also, is to be noted as a testimony remaining still of our language, derived from the Saxons, that the general name, for the most part, of every skilful artificer in his trade endeth in here with us, albeit the be left out, and er only inserted, as, scrivenhere, writehere, shiphere, &c. for scrivener, writer, and shipper, &c.; beside many other relics of that speech, never to be abolished.

After the Saxon tongue came the Norman or French *It is scarcely necessary to remark, that this term is here misapplied.

The Highlanders of Scotland still speak of the English 98 Sassenach (meaning Saxons).

PROSE WRITERS.

ENGLISH LITERATURE.

language over into our country, and therein were our Our children, also, laws written for a long time. were, by an especial decree, taught first to speak the same, and thereunto enforced to learn their constructions in the French, whensoever they were set to the grammar-school. In like sort, few bishops, abbots, or other clergymen, were admitted unto any ecclesiastical function here among us, but such as came out of religious houses from beyond the seas, to the end they should not use the English tongue in their sermons to the people. In the court, also, it grew into such contempt, that most men thought it no small dishonour to speak any English there; which bravery took his hold at the last likewise in the country with every ploughman, that even the very carters began to wax weary of their mother-tongue, and laboured to speak French, which as then was counted no small token of gentility. And no marvel; for every French rascal, when he came once hither, was taken for a gentleman, only because he was proud, and could use his own language. And all this (I say) to exile the English and British speeches quite out of the country. But in vain; for in the time of king Edward I., to wit, toward the latter end of his reign, the French itself ceased to be spoken generally, but most of all and by law in the midst of Edward III., and then began the English to recover and grow in more estimation than before; notwithstanding that, among our artificers, the most part of their implements, tools, and words of art, retain still their French denominations even to these our days, as the language itself is used likewise in sundry courts, books of record, and matters of law; whereof here is no place to make any particular rehearsal. Afterward, also, by diligent travail of Geoffrey Chaucer and John Gower, in the time of Richard II., and after them of John Scogan and John Lydgate, monk of Bury, our said tongue was brought to an excellent pass, notwithstanding that it never came unto the type of perfection until the time of Queen Elizabeth, wherein John Jewel, bishop of Sarum, John Fox, and sundry learned and excellent writers, have fully accomplished the ornature of the same, to their great praise and immortal commendation; although not a few other do greatly seek to stain the same, by fond affectation of foreign and strange words, presuming that to be the best English which is most corrupted with external terms of eloquence and sound But as this excellency of the of many syllables. English tongue is found in one, and the south part of this island, so in Wales the greatest number (as I said) retain still their own ancient language, that of the north part of the said country being less corrupted than the other, and therefore reputed for the better in their own estimation and judgment. This, also, is proper to us Englishmen, that since ours is a middle or intermediate language, and neither too rough nor too smooth in utterance, we may with much facility learn any other language, beside Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, and speak it naturally, as if we were home-born in those countries; and yet on the other side it falleth out, I wot not by what other means, that few foreign nations can rightly pronounce ours, without some and that great note of imperfection, especially the Frenchmen, who also seldom write anything that savoureth of English truly. But this of all the rest doth breed most admiration with me, that if any stranger do hit upon some likely pronunciation of our tongue, yet in age he swerveth so much from the same, that he is worse therein than ever he was, and thereto, peradventure, halteth not a little also in his own, as I have seen by experience in Reginald Wolfe, and others, whereof I have justly marvelled.

The Cornish and Devonshire men, whose country the Britons call Cerniw, have a speech in like sort of their own, and such as hath indeed more affinity with the Armorican tongue than I can well discuss of. Yet

in mine opinion, they are both but a corrupted kind
of British, albeit so far degenerating in these days
from the old, that if either of them do meet with a
one another, except here and there in some odd words,
Welshman, they are not able at the first to understand
without the help of interpreters. And no marvel, in
mine opinion, that the British of Cornwall is thus
corrupted, since the Welsh tongue that is spoken in
in itself, as the English used in Scotland doth from
the north and south part of Wales doth differ so much
that which is spoken among us here in this side of
the island, as I have said already.

The Scottish-English hath been much broader and
less pleasant in utterance than ours, because that
nation hath not, till of late, endeavoured to bring the
same to any perfect order, and yet it was such in
manner as Englishmen themselves did speak for the
most part beyond the Trent, whither any great amend-
itself. Howbeit, in our time the Scottish language
ment of our language had not, as then, extended
our tongue in fineness of phrase and copiousness of
endeavoureth to come near, if not altogether to match,
words, and this may in part appear by a history of
the Apocrypha translated into Scottish verse by Hud-
son, dedicated to the king of that country, and con-
taining six books, except my memory do fail me.

RICHARD HAKLUYT.

RICHARD HAKLUYT is another of the laborious com

pilers of this period, to whom the world is indebted
for the preservation, in an accessible form, of narra-
tives which would otherwise, in all probability, have
fallen into oblivion. The department of history which
tures and discoveries of his countrymen. Hakluyt
he chose was that descriptive of the naval adven-
was born in London about the year 1553, and received
his elementary education at Westminster school. He
afterwards studied at Oxford, where he engaged in
on geographical and maritime subjects, for which
an extensive course of reading in various languages,
he had carly displayed a strong liking. So much
reputation did his knowledge in those departments
at Oxford on cosmography and the collateral sciences,
acquire for him, that he was appointed to lecture
and carried on a correspondence with those cele-
brated continental geographers, Ortelius and Mer-
cator. At a subsequent period, he resided for five
years in Paris as chaplain to the English ambas-
ance of persons eminent for their knowledge of
On his return
sador, during which time he cultivated the acquaint-
geography and maritime history.
him one of the society of counsellors, assistants, and
from France in 1588, Sir Walter Raleigh appointed
the prosecution of discoveries in America.
adventurers, to whom he assigned his patent_for
two small collections of voyages to America; but
viously to this, he had published, in 1582 and 1587,
these are included in a much larger work in three
volumes, which he published in 1598, 1599, and 1600,
entitled The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traf
fiques, and Discoveries of the English Nation, made by
Sea or Over Land, to the Remote and Farthest Distant
In the first volume are contained voyages
Quarters of the Earth, within the Compass of these 1500
years.
to the north and north-east; the true state of Ice-
land; the defeat of the Spanish Armada; the expe-
dition under the Earl of Essex to Cadiz, &c. In the
second, he relates voyages to the south and south-
rica, the West Indies, and round the world. Nar-
east; and in the third, expeditions to North Ame-
ratives are given of nearly two hundred and twenty
voyages, besides many relative documents, such as
patents, instructions, and letters. To this collection
all the subsequent compilers in this department have

251

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been largely indebted. In the explanatory catalogue prefixed to Churchill's Collection of Voyages,' and of which Locke has been said to be the author, Hakluyt's collection is spoken of as valuable for the good there to be picked out: but it might be wished the author had been less voluminous, delivering what was really authentic and useful, and not stuffing his work with so many stories taken upon trust, so many trading voyages that have nothing new in them, so many warlike exploits not at all pertinent to his undertaking, and such a multitude of articles, charters, privileges, letters, relations, and other things little to the purpose of travels and discoveries.** The work having become very scarce, a new edition, in five volumes quarto, was published in 1809. Hakluyt was the author, also, of translations of two foreign works on Florida; and, when at Paris, published an enlarged edition of a history in the Latin language, entitled De Rebus Oceanicis et Orbe Novo, by Martyr, an Italian author; this was afterwards translated into English by a person of the name of Lok, under the title of The History of the West Indies, containing the Acts and Adventures of the Spaniards, which have Conquered and Peopled those Countries; enriched with Variety of Pleasant Relation of Manners, Ceremonies, Laws, Governments, and Wars, of the Indians. In 1601 Hakluyt published the Discoveries of the World, from the First Original to the Year of our Lord 1555, translated, with additions, from the Portuguese of Antonio Galvano, governor of Ternate, in the East Indies. At his death, in 1616, his papers, which were numerous, came into the hands of

SAMUEL PURCHAS,

another English clergyman, who made use of them in compiling a history of voyages, in four volumes, entitled Purchas his Pilgrims. This appeared in 1625; but the author had already published, in 1613, before Hakluyt's death, a volume called Purchas his Pilgrimage; or, Relations of the World, and the Religions Observed in all Ages and Places Discovered from the Creation unto this Present. These two works (a new edition of the latter of which was published in 1626) form a continuation of Hakluyt's collection, but on a more extended plan. The publication of this voluminous work involved the author in debt: it was, however, well received, and has been of much utility to later compilers. The writer of the catalogue in Churchill's collection says of Purchas, that he has imitated Hakluyt too much, swelling his work into five volumes in folio;' yet, he adds, 'the whole collection is very valuable, as having preserved many considerable voyages that might otherwise have perished. But, like Hakluyt, he has thrown in all that came to hand, to fill up so many volumes, and is excessive full of his own notions, and of mean quibbling and playing upon words; yet for such as can make choice of the best, the collection is very valuable.' Among his peculiarities is

* Churchill's Collection, vol. i., p. xvii.

The contents of the different volumes are as follow:Vol. I. of the Pilgrims' contains Voyages and Travels of Ancient Kings, Patriarchs, Apostles, and Philosophers; Voyages of Circumnavigators of the Globe; and Voyages along the coasts of Africa to the East Indies, Japan, China, the Philippine Islands,

and the Persian and Arabian Gulfs. Vol. II. contains Voyages

that of interlarding theological reflections and discussions with his narratives. Purchas died about 1628, at the age of fifty-one. His other works are, Microcosmus, or the History of Man (1619); the King's Tower and Triumphant Arch of London (1623); and a Funeral Sermon (1619). His quaint eulogy of the sea is here extracted from the Pilgrimage :

[The Sea.]

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As God hath combined the sea and land into one globe, so their joint combination and mutual assistance is necessary to secular happiness and glory. The sea covereth one-half of this patrimony of man, whereof God set him in possession when he said, Replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.' Thus should man at once lose half his inheritance, if the art of navigation did not enable him to manage this untamed beast, and with the bridle of the winds and saddle of his shipping to make him serviceable. Now for the services of the sea, they are innumerable: it is the great purveyor of the world's commodities to our use; conveyer of the excess of rivers; uniter, by traffick, of all nations: it presents the eye with diversified colours and motions, and is, as it were, with rich brooches, adorned with various islands. It is an open field for merchandise in peace; a pitched field for the most dreadful fights of war; yields diversity of fish and fowl for diet; materials for wealth, medicine for health, simples for medicines, pearls, and other jewels for ornament; amber and ambergrise for delight; the wonders of the Lord in the deep' for instruction, variety of creatures for use, multiplicity of natures for contemplation, diversity of accidents bodies healthful evacuation, to the thirsty earth fertile for admiration, compendiousness to the way, to full moisture, to distant friends pleasant meeting, to weary minds a map of knowledge, mystery of temperance, persons delightful refreshing, to studious and religious exercise of continence; school of prayer, meditation, devotion, and sobriety; refuge to the distressed, portage to the merchant, passage to the traveller, customs to the prince, springs, lakes, rivers, to the earth; it hath on it tempests and calms to chastise the sins, to exercise the faith, of seamen; manifold affections in itself, to affect and stupify the subtlest philosopher; sustaineth moveable fortresses for the soldier; maintaineth (as in our island) a wall of defence and watery garrison to guard the state; entertains the sun with vapours, the moon with obsequiousness, the stars also with a natural looking-glass, the sky with clouds, the air with temperateness, the soil with suppleness, the rivers with tides, the hills with moisture, the valleys with fertility; containeth most diversified matter for meteors, most multiform shapes, most various, numerous kinds, most immense, difformed, deformed, unformed monsters; once (for why should I longer detain you?) the sea yields action to the body, meditation to the mind, the world to the world, all parts thereof to each part, by this art of arts, navigation.

JOHN DAVIS.

Among the intrepid navigators of Queen Elizaluyt, one of the most distinguished is JOHN DAVIS, beth's reign, whose adventures are recorded by Hakfollowing years, made three voyages in search of a a native of Devonshire, who, in 1585, and the two north-west passage to China, and discovered the well-known straits to which his name has ever since been applied. In 1595 he himself published a small Pilgrimage, a Theological and Geographical History of Asia, and now exceedingly rare volume, entitled The

and Relations of Africa, Ethiopia, Palestine, Arabia, Persia, and other parts of Asia. Voi. III. contains Tartary, China, Russia, North-West America, and the Polar Regions. Vol. IV. contains America and the West Indies. Vol. V. contains the

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World's Hydrographical Description, wherein,' as we are told in the title-page, is proued not onely

PROSE WRITERS.

ENGLISH LITERATURE.

by aucthoritie of writers, but also by late experience | Dartmouth. And acquainting master Secretory with
of trauellers, and reasons of substantiall probabilitie,
that the worlde in all his zones, clymats, and places,
is habitable and inhabited, and the seas likewise
universally nauigable, without any naturall anoy-
ance to hinder the same; whereby appeares that
from England there is a short and speedie passage
into the South Seas to China, Malucca, Phillipina,
and India, by northerly navigation, to the renowne,
honour, and benefit of her maiesties state and com-
munalty.' In corroboration of these positions, he
gives a short narrative of his voyages, which, not-
withstanding the unsuccessful termination of them
all, he considers to afford arguments in favour of
the north-west passage. This narrative, with its
original spelling, is here inserted as an interesting
specimen of the style of such relations in the age of
Elizabeth.

the rest of the honorable and worshipfull adventurers
of all our procedinges, I was appointed againe the
seconde yeere to search the bottome of this straight,
because by all likelihood it was the place and passage
by us laboured for. In this second attempt the mer-
chants of Exeter and other places of the West be-
came adventurers in the action, so that, being suffi-
to search this straighte, untill we found the same to
ciently furnished for sixe monthes, and having direction
fall into an other sea upon the West side of this part
of America, we should agayne retourne, for then it was
not to be doubted but shiping with trade might
safely bee conueied to China and the parts of Asia.
We departed from Dartmouth, and ariving unto the
south part of the cost of Desolation costed the same
there ancored among the ylls bordering upon the same,
upon his west shore to the lat. of 66. degres, and
where wee refreshed our selues. The people of this place
their signes that towardes the North the sea was large.
came likewise vnto vs, by whome I vnderstood through
At this place the chiefe shipe whereupon I trusted,
Then considering howe
called the Mermayd of Dartmouth, found many occa-
sions of discontentment, and being unwilling to pro-
ceede she there forsooke me.
I had giuen my fayth and most constant promise to
my worshipfull good friend master William Sander-
son, who of all men was the greatest aduenturer in
that action, and tooke such care for the perfourmance
theerof that hee hath to my knowledge at one time
euver out of his owne purse, when some of the com-
disbursed as much money as any fiue others whatso-
pany haue bin slacke in giuing in their aduenture.
And also knowing that I should lose the fauour of
master Secretory, if I should shrinke from his direction,
in one small barke of thirty tonnes, whereof master
Sanderson was owner, alone without farther comfort or
company I proceeded on my voyage, and ariuing unto
this straights followed the same eightie leages, vntill
came among many ylandes, where the water did eb
and flowe sixe fadome vpright, and where there had
beene great trade of people to make trayne. But by
were not Xtians of Europe that vsed that trade; in
such thinges as there we found, wee knewe that they
fine, by seaching with our boate, wee founde small
hope to passe any farther that way, and therefore
retourning againe recouered the sea and so coasted
the shore towardes the South, and in so doing (for it
was to late to search towardes the North) wee founde
an other great inlett neere fortie leages broade where
the water entred in with violent swiftnes. This we
likewise thought might be a passage, for no doubt but
the North partes of America are all ylands, by ought
that I could perceiue therein; but because I was alone
in a small barke of thirtie tonnes, and the yeere
spent I entered not into the same, for it was now the
seuenth of September, but coasting the shore towardes
the South we saw an incredible number of birdes.
Hauing diuers fishermen aborde our barke, they all
concluded that there was a great scull of fish. Wee
beeing vnprouided of fishing furniture, with a long
spike nayle mayde a hoke, and fastening the same to
one of our sounding lynes. Before the bayte was
changed wee tooke more than fortie great cods, the
fishe swimming so aboundantly thicke about our
barke as is incredible to be reported of, which with a
small portion of salte that we had, wee preserued
some thirtie couple, or there aboutes, and so returned
for England. And hauing reported to master Secre-
tory the whole successe of this attempt, hee com-
manded mee to present unto the most honorable
Lorde high thresurer of England some parte of that
fish, which when his Lordship saw and hearde at large
the relation of this seconde attempt, I receiued fauor-
able countenance from his honour, aduising mee to
prosecute the action, of which his Lordship conceiue

[Davis's Voyages in Search of the North-West Passage.]
In my first voyage, not experienced of the nature
of those clymattes, and having no direction either by
Chart, Globe, or other certayne relation in what alti-
tude that passage was to bee scarched, I shaped a
Northerly course and so sought the same towards the
South, and in that my Northerly course I fell upon
the shore which in ancient time was called Groynland,
fiue hundred leagues distant from the durseys West
Nor West Northerly, the land being very high and
full of mightie mountaines all couered with snow, no
viewe of wood, grasse, or earth to be seene, and the
shore two leages of into the sea so full of yse as that
no shipping cold by any meanes come neere the same.
The lothsome vewe of the shore, and irksome noyse of
the yse was such, as that it bred strange conceipts among
us, so that we supposed the place to be wast and voyd
of any sencible or vegitable creatures, wherupon I
called the same Desolation; so coasting this shore
towardes the South in the latitude of sixtie degrees, II
found it to trend towardes the west. I still followed
the leading thereof in the same height, and after fiftie
or sixtie leages, it fayled and lay directly north, which
I still followed, and in thirtie leages sayling upon the
West side of this coast by me named Desolation, we
were past all the yse and found many greene and
plesant Ills bordering upon the shore, but the moun-
tains of the maine were still covered with great quan-
tities of snowe. I brought my shippe among those ylls
and there mored to refreshe our selves in our wearie
travell, in the latitude of sixtie foure degrees or there
about. The people of the country, having espyed our
shipps, came down unto us in their canoes, holding up
their right hand to the Sunne and crying Yliaout,
would stricke their brestes; we doing the like the
people came aborde our shippes, men of good stature,
unbearded, small eyed and of tractable conditions; by
whom, as signes would permit, we understoode that
towardes the North and West there was a great sea,
and using the people with kindnesse in geuing them
nayles and knifes which of all things they most de-
sired, we departed, and finding the sea free from yse,
supposing our selves to be past all daunger, we shaped
our course West Nor West, thinking thereby to passe
for China, but in the latitude of sixtie sixe degrees,
wee fell with an other shore, and there founde an
other passage of 20 leages broade directly West into
the same,
which we supposed to bee our hoped strayght.
We intered into the same thirty or fortie leages, finding
it neither to wyden nor straighten; then, considering that
the yeere was spent, for this was in the fyne of August,
and not knowing the length of this straight and dan-
gers thereof, we tooke it our best course to retourne
with notice of our good successe for this small time
of search. And so retourning in a sharpe fret of
Westerly windes, the 29 of September we arrived at

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