Voyages in Search of the North-West PassageHakluyt, Richard
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Voyages in Search of the North-West Passage
Hakluyt, Richard
Arctic regions -- Discovery and exploration; Northwest Passage; Voyages and travels
_With others_, _for the discovery of the North-West Passage_, _in Anno_
1586.
The 7th day of May I departed from the port of Dartmouth for the
discovery of the North-West Passage with a ship of a 120 tons, named the
_Mermaid_; a barque of 60 tons, named the _Sunshine_; a barque of 35 tons
named the _Moonlight_; and a pinnace of 10 tons named the _North Star_.
And the 15th June I discovered land, in the latitude of 60 degrees, and
in longitude from the meridian of London westward 47 degrees, mightily
pestered with ice and snow, so that there was no hope of landing; the ice
lay in some places 10 leagues, in some 20, and in some 50 leagues off the
shore, so that we were constrained to bear into 57 degrees to double the
same, and to recover a free sea, which through God's favourable mercy we
at length obtained.
The nine-and-twentieth day of June, after many tempestuous storms, we
again discovered land in longitude from the meridian of London 58 degrees
30 minutes, and in latitude 64 being east from us, into which course,
since it pleased God by contrary winds to force us, I thought it very
necessary to bear in with it, and there to set up our pinnace, provided
in the _Mermaid_ to be our scout for this discovery, and so much the
rather, because the year before I had been in the same place and found it
very convenient for such a purpose, well stored with float wood, and
possessed by a people of tractable conversation; so that the
nine-and-twentieth of this month we arrived within the isles which lay
before this land, lying north-north-west and south-south-east we know not
how far. This land is very high and mountainous, having before it on the
west side a mighty company of isles full of fair sounds and harbours.
This land was very little troubled with snow, and the sea altogether void
of ice.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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