entering Hudson's Strait in the latter part of June. Here the accumulation of ice was so great as to force her out to sea again, and the attempt to penetrate farther westward was at length abandoned. Swaine then carefully examined the coast of Labrador before returning to Philadelphia, where he arrived in November. In the following year he made a second voyage of discovery in the same vessel. He was again unsuccessful, and

Nearly a quarter of a century later, in the same year in which the American colonies declared their independence of the mother-country,the English government determined to renew the search for the much desired passage; but it was now thought desirable to reverse the course hitherto followed, and to attempt to pass from the Pacific into the Atlantic. Two ships were accordingly fitted out, the "Resolution," under command of the famous navigator Captain James Cook, and the "Discovery," Cap* From an engraving in Troisième Voyage de Cook (Versailles et Paris, 1783).

tain Charies Clerke. Cook sailed from Plymouth on the 12th of July, 1776, and was to be joined by Clerke on his arrival at the Cape of Good Hope. It was not, however, until August, 1779, that the two ships entered Behring's Strait. After passing through the strait they first sailed toward Asia, and then turning east skirted the American coast for a short distance; but the season was far advanced, and Cook did not think it prudent to continue his voyage. Before the end of the month he began to retrace his course, and not long afterward he was killed in the Sandwich Islands, leaving a name unsurpassed by any English sailor of his time. In the following year Clerke again passed through the strait; but the obstruction by ice was such that he soon relinquished any attempt to prosecute the search along the American coast.

About the time that Cook sailed from England, Lieutenant Richard Pickersgill was sent to Baffin's Bay in the brig "Lion," to make such an examination of the waters in that neighborhood as might be useful to a vessel which it was intended should meet Cook on his anticipated arrival from the other side of America. Pickersgill left Deptford on the 26th of May, 1776, but he seems to have lacked the qualities which characterized the great navigators of the preceding century, and his voyage only added one more to the catalogue of those which had failed to give an adequate return for the thought and expense bestowed on them. In the next year Walter Young was sent out in the same vessel with a similar purpose, to ascertain how far it was probable that a northwest passage existed by way of Baffin's Bay. Like his predecessor, he was deterred by the multitude of icebergs. which he encountered, and he returned within a little more than three months after leaving England. It was left to another century, and to men of more persistent energy, to trace the extent and direction of the waters flowing into that great sea.

The spirit of Arctic adventure slumbered for more than a generation after the departure of Cook on his last voyage. At length it suddenly revived in consequence of reports carried to England that during the years 1815 to 1817 there had been a great change in the enormous ice-fields surrounding the coasts of Greenland. It was said they had been broken up to an unusual extent, and had drifted down into the Atlantic, leaving it more probable than ever before that exploring vessels would be able to reach a high northern latitude. With the repeated confirmations of this theory from various sources there was a revival of interest in the still unsolved problem of a northwest passage; and this interest was further stimulated by the writings and personal appeals of Mr., afterward Sir John, Barrow, then and for many years Secretary of the Admiralty. Through the persistent exertions of the advocates for further explorations, it was determined by the British government to send out another expedition. British Museum illustrating Cook's voyage, in cluding journals, log-books, etc. — ED.]

1 [See Vol. II. p. 469. In the London Athenaum, July 20, 1878, is a list of the MSS. in the

This consisted of the "Isabella," of three hundred and eighty-five tons, under the command of Captain John Ross, and the "Alexander," of two hundred and fifty-two tons, under Lieutenant W. E. Parry, officered and manned by a company numbering in all ninety-four persons. The ships sailed from the Thames on the 18th of April, 1818, and after an absence of seven months anchored there on the 14th of November. Ross was a skilful and cautious seaman, but he lacked the bold and adventurous spirit which experience had shown was necessary for success in Arctic navigation. This defect and a too close adherence to the letter of his instructions prevented his voyage from having much scientific or practical importance. He was assiduous in making the astronomical and other observations required of him, and he corrected some of the mistakes which had crept into the maps; but he added little to the knowledge of Arctic geography, and on some points he fell into serious errors.

These mistakes were not shared by all of his officers, and in the following year Lieutenant Parry, who had been next in command under Ross, was sent out with two vessels, the "Hecla," of three hundred and seventy-five tons, and the "Griper," of one hundred and eighty tons. The whole number of persons in this expedition was precisely the same as was with Ross, and they were all experienced sailors, many of them having been with him on the late voyage. The two vessels sailed from the Thames on the 11th of May, 1819, and arrived at the Orkneys, on their return, at the end of October, 1820, having been absent nearly a year and a half. Parry had been at sea ever since he was twelve years old, and thus brought to the service in which he was now employed a large and various experience, though he was still under thirty. From the first he exhibited great energy, excellent judgment, and a most watchful care over the health and wellbeing of his men. Directing his course up the western coast of Greenland, he passed through Sir James Lawrence Sound, and reached Melville Island early in September, 1819. Here, in a small opening to which he gave the name of Winter Harbor, he was forced to remain nearly eleven months. It was the farthest western point yet reached by any exploring expedition; and their success thus far had entitled the officers and crew to a bounty of £5,000, authorized by an act of Parliament. The winter was long, dreary, and intensely cold; but its wearisomeness was relieved by theatrical performances and by the publication of a weekly newspaper entitled The North Georgia Gazette, or Winter Chronicle, which was not without considerable merit, and, considering the circumstances under which it was composed, well deserved the honor of republication on the return of the ships to England. On becoming free of the ice, in August, 1820, Parry attempted to prosecute his voyage still farther to the west, but after painfully working his way a few miles he was compelled, by the lateness of the season and by the impenetrable masses of ice which surrounded his vessels, to relinquish his design. He then made sail for home, with his confidence in a northwest passage in no degree shaken by his failure to find it.

2

In the spring of the following year Parry sailed on a second voyage, in the "Fury," of three hundred and seventy-six tons, with a crew of fiftynine persons, and accompanied by his old ship, the "Hecla," under the command of Captain George F. Lyon, who had with him fifty-seven men. The ships and their equipments were, as nearly as possible, closely alike, so that in case of an accident to either vessel her wants could be supplied at once from her consort; and this "equalization" proved in the end to be of so great advantage that Parry himself declared it to be an "absolute necessity" in the case of "two ships that must necessarily be dependent solely on their own resources for a long and uncertain period of time." 1 The ships sailed from the Thames on the 8th of May, 1821, and directed their course for Hudson's Strait and the upper part of Hudson's Bay, following in the track of Middleton's discoveries near the middle of the last century. The season was unfavorable, and early in October Parry was obliged to secure his vessels in winter-quarters near the southeast angle of Melville Peninsula. In the mean time, however, he had verified many of the discoveries of Middleton, and had accurately delineated the coast for a distance of "more than two hundred leagues, nearly half of which belonged to the continent of North America."3 The weariness of this first winter was relieved in very much the same way as in the former voyage, and by expedients similar to those which he had then employed. Winter Island, where he was now imprisoned by the ice, was more than eight degrees farther south than Winter Harbor; but it was not until the beginning of July that he was able to leave it and begin to work his way northward. After several ineffectual attempts to pass through the opening between Melville Peninsula and Cockburn Island, since known as the Strait of Fury and Hecla, he was again obliged to secure his vessels in a winter station as early as the middle of October. Here, at the island of Igloolik, not far from the northeastern point of Melville Peninsula, he remained through another dreary winter until the early part of August, when, in consequence of the failing health of his crew, which, in the opinion of the surgeon, rendered it imprudent to remain in the ice another winter, — he reluctantly gave up the farther prosecution of his voyage. As soon as the vessels were free from the ice they sailed for England, where they arrived about the middle of October. The two years had been fruitful in important discoveries; and Parry returned more than ever convinced of the exist ence of a northwest passage, but with his belief in its practicability much shaken.

A few months after his return he sailed again in the "Hecla," on a third voyage, accompanied by the "Fury," now under the command of Captain Henry P. Hoppner, who had been on both of the previous voyages. They left the Nore on the 19th of May, 1824, with instructions to effect a passage, if possible, through Barrow Strait and Prince Regent's Inlet into the 1 Journal of a Second Voyage, Introduction,

p. iv.

2 See ante, ch. i.

3 Journal of a Second Voyage, p. 118.

western seas.

The season proved a very unfavorable one, and the progress of the ships was greatly impeded by the extent and thickness of the ice. At the end of September, Parry was obliged to seek winter-quarters at Port Bowen, on the eastern side of Prince Regent's Inlet. Here he remained until the 20th of July, 1825, when, the ships having been freed from the ice, he attempted to cross to the western side of the Inlet. For a short time he made satisfactory progress; but he soon encountered fresh obstructions, by which the "Fury" received severe and repeated injuries, and it became necessary to abandon her at the end of August, very near the place where she had been first beset. Her officers and men were then transferred to the "Hecla," and as soon as possible sail was made for England, where the ship arrived about the middle of October. The expedition was the least successful of the three undertaken by Parry; but it does not appear that its failure was due to any want of care and forethought on his part or on that of his companions. Nothing had been done to solve the long vexed problem, though considerable additions had been made to the knowledge of the limited field to which Parry's researches were confined.

Just a month after Parry sailed on his third voyage, his former companion, Captain Lyon, left England in the "Griper," with instructions to proceed through Hudson's Strait to Repulse Bay or Wager River, where he was to leave his vessel in a place of security for the winter. He was then to cross Melville Peninsula, and make a preliminary examination of the shore of the Polar Sea in that neighborhood, with a view to a more thorough exploration in the following spring. For the latter purpose, he was to go as rapidly as possible to Point Turnagain, which had already been reached by Captain, afterwards Sir John, Franklin, in an overland expedition from the west, and he was then to trace the coast far enough east to connect it with the previous explorations. The expedition was a signal failure. Owing to their proximity to the magnetic pole, the compasses ceased to be of practical use; the season was extremely unfavorable; constant gales were encountered; and the "Griper" was so dull a sailor and was so deep in the water as often to be unmanageable. She sailed from the Thames on the 16th of June, and early in August arrived off Cape Chidley, where she took on board additional stores from a surveying vessel which had been ordered to accompany her to the edge of the ice, and which had towed her a large part of the distance thus far accomplished. Here the two vessels parted company. By the most persevering efforts Lyon succeeded in getting within about ninety miles of Repulse Bay before the 10th of September, when he lost all his anchors in a severe gale. He then determined to relinquish his undertaking, and as soon as was possible made sail for home; but it was not until the 10th of November that the "Griper" was moored at Portsmouth. How far the failure of the enterprise was owing to a lack of good seamanship on the part of the commander it is not easy, perhaps, to determine; but it is scarcely possible not to compare his failure with