Voyages in Search of the North-West PassageHakluyt, Richard
History
Voyages in Search of the North-West Passage
Hakluyt, Richard
Arctic regions -- Discovery and exploration; Northwest Passage; Voyages and travels
Being in amongst it, we saw the _Michael_, of whom I spake before,
accompanied with the, _Judith_, whose captain was Master Fenton, the
master, Charles Jackman, bearing into the aforesaid ice, far distant from
us, who in a storm that fell that present night (whereof I will at large,
God willing, discourse hereafter), were severed from us, and being in,
wandered up and down the straits amongst the ice, many days in great
peril, till at the last (by the providence of God) they came safely to
harbour in their wished port in the Countess of Warwick's Sound the 20th
July aforesaid, ten days before any of the other ships; who going on
shore, found where the people of the country had been, and had hid their
provision in great heaps of stone, being both of flesh and fish, which
they had killed, whereof we also found great store in other places after
our arrival. They found also divers engines, as bows, slings, and darts.
They found likewise certain pieces of the pinnace which our general left
there the year before; which pinnace he had sunk, minding to have it
again the next year.
Now, seeing I have entreated so much of the _Judith_ and the _Michael_, I
will return to the rest of the other ships, and will speak a little of
the storm which fell, with the mishaps that we had, the night that we put
into the ice, whereof I made mention before.
At the first entry into the ice, in the mouth of the straits, our passage
was very narrow and difficult; but being once gotten in, we had a fair,
open place without any ice for the most part; being a league in compass,
the ice being round about us, and enclosing us, as it were, within the
pales of a park. In which place (because it was almost night) we minded
to take in our sails and lie a hull all that night. But the storm so
increased, and the waves began to mount aloft, which brought the ice so
near us, and coming in so fast upon us, that we were fain to bear in and
out, where ye might espy an open place. Thus the ice coming on us so
fast we were in great danger, looking every hour for death, and thus
passed we on in that great danger, seeing both ourselves and the rest of
our ships so troubled and tossed amongst the ice, that it would make the
strongest-heart to relent.
At the last, the barque _Dionyse_, being but a weak ship, and bruised
afore amongst the ice, being so leak that she no longer could carry above
water, sank without saving any of the goods which were in her: the sight
so abashed the whole fleet, that we thought verily we should have tasted
of the same sauce. But nevertheless, we seeing them in such danger,
manned our boats, and saved all the men, in such wise that not one
perished. (God be thanked.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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