Captain Nares may be allowed to give in brief his reasons for returning home that season. The enfeebled state of his crew precluded the hope that, even when recovered, they would accomplish as much as, or at all events more than, had been already done. He believes that from any position in Smith’s Sound attainable by a ship it would be impossible to advance nearer the Pole by sledges. Furthermore, that all that he could have hoped to accomplish by stopping another winter was perhaps an extended exploration of Grant Land to the south-westward, and Greenland for perhaps fifty miles further to the north-eastward or eastward. And to his credit it must be scored that he brought the vessels home in nearly as good condition as they would have returned from any foreign station. After many a fight with the elements and many an encounter with the ice, the _Alert_ and _Discovery_ reached our shores safely on October 27th, 1876. The reader knows the rest, and if he is of our mind will not grudge the honours bestowed on men who, if they had not accomplished all that was expected, had at least done more than any of their predecessors in the frozen fields of the far north. CHAPTER XII. THE FIRST ARCTIC VOYAGES. Early History of Arctic Discovery—The “Hardy Norseman”—Accidental Discovery of Iceland—Colony Formed—A Fisherman Drifted to Greenland—Eric the Red Head—Rapid Colonisation—Early Intercourse with America—Voyages of the Zeni—Cabot’s Attempt at a North-west Passage—Maritime Enterprise of this Epoch—Voyage of the _Dominus Vobiscum_—Of the _Trinitie_ and _Minion_—Starvation and Cannibalism—A High-handed Proceeding—Company of the Merchant Adventurers—Attempts at the North-east—Fate of Willoughby—Chancelor, and our First Intercourse with Russia. And now, having noted the results attained by the latest expedition which has dared to attempt the discovery of the North Pole,(19) let us glance at the progress of northern discovery from the very beginning, and watch the gradual steps by which such discoveries were rendered possible. We shall have to go back to a period when no compass guided the mariner on his watery way, when sextants and artificial horizons were undreamed of, when navigation, in a word, was but in its second stage of infancy. And although many of the earlier discoveries were the result of pure accident, we shall see much to admire in the enterprise and hardihood of explorers who ventured almost blindfold into unknown seas, abounding in special obstacles and dangers.