From the Collection of RICHARD HAKLUYT. CASSELL & COMPANY, Limited: london , paris & melbourne . 1892....

Thirty-five years ago I made a voyage to the Arctic Seas in what Chaucer calls   A little bote No bigger than a mannë’s thought; it was a Phantom Ship that made some voyages to different parts of the world which were recorded in early numbers of Charles Dickens’s “Household Words.”  As preface to Richard Hakluyt’s records of the first endeavour of our bold Elizabethan mariners to find North-West Passage to the East, let me repeat here that old voyage of mine from No. 55 of “Household Words,” dat

When I gave myself to the study of geography, after I had perused and diligently scanned the descriptions of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and conferred them with the maps and globes both antique and modern, I came in fine to the fourth part of the world, commonly called America, which by all descriptions I found to be an island environed round about with the sea, having on the south side of it the Strait of Magellan, on the west side the Mare de Sur, which sea runneth towards the north, separating

1.  All seas are maintained by the abundance of water, so that the nearer the end any river, bay, or haven is, the shallower it waxeth (although by some accidental bar it is sometime found otherwise), but the farther you sail west from Iceland, towards the place where this strait is thought to be, the more deep are the seas, which giveth us good hope of continuance of the same sea, with Mare del Sur, by some strait that lieth between America, Greenland, and Cathay. 2.  Also, if that America were

1.  Paulus Venetus, who dwelt many years in Cathay, affirmed that he had sailed 1,500 miles upon the coast of Mangia and Anian, towards the north-east, always finding the seas open before him, not only as far as he went, but also as far as he could discern. 2.  Also Franciscus Vasquez de Coronado, passing from Mexico by Cevola, through the country of Quiver to Sierra Nevada, found there a great sea, where were certain ships laden with merchandise, the mariners wearing on their heads the pictures

The diversity between brute beasts and men, or between the wise and the simple, is, that the one judgeth by sense only, and gathereth no surety of anything that he hath not seen, felt, heard, tasted, or smelled: and the other not so only, but also findeth the certainty of things, by reason, before they happen to be tried, wherefore I have added proofs of both sorts, that the one and the other might thereby be satisfied. 1.  First, as Gemma Frisius reciteth, there went from Europe three brethren

1.  They could not come from the south-east by the Cape of Good Hope, because the roughness of the seas there is such—occasioned by the currents and great winds in that part—that the greatest armadas the King of Portugal hath cannot without great difficulty pass that way, much less, then, a canoe of India could live in those outrageous seas without shipwreck, being a vessel but of very small burden, and the Indians have conducted themselves to the place aforesaid, being men unexpert in the art o

1.  It is likely that there should be no through passage by the north-east whereby to go round about the world, because all seas, as aforesaid, are maintained by the abundance of water, waxing more shallow and shelving towards the end, as we find it doth, by experience, in the Frozen Sea, towards the east, which breedeth small hope of any great continuance of that sea to be navigable towards the east, sufficient to sail thereby round about the world. 2.  Also, it standeth scarcely with reason th

It is as likely that they came by the north-west as it is unlikely that they should come either by the south-east, south-west, north-east, or from any other part of Africa or America, and therefore this North-West Passage, having been already so many ways proved by disproving of the others, etc., I shall the less need in this place to use many words otherwise than to conclude in this sort, that they came only by the north-west from England, having these many reasons to lead me thereunto. 1.  Fir

Because you may understand as well those things alleged against me as what doth serve for my purpose, I have here added the reasons of Master Anthony Jenkinson, a worthy gentleman, and a great traveller, who conceived a better hope of the passage to Cathay from us to be by the north-east than by the north-west. He first said that he thought not to the contrary but that there was a passage by the north-west, according to mime opinion, but he was assured that there might be found a navigable passa

1.  By the north-east, if your winds do not give you a marvellous speedy and lucky passage, you are in danger (of being so near the Pole) to be benighted almost the one half of the year, and what danger that were, to live so long comfortless, void of light (if the cold killed you not), each man of reason or understanding may judge. 2.  Also Mangia, Quinzai, and the Moluccas, are nearer unto us by the north-west than by the north-east more than two-fifths, which is almost by the half. 3.  Also we

1.  It were the only way for our princes to possess the wealth of all the east parts (as they term them) of the world, which is infinite; as appeareth by the experience of Alexander the Great in the time of his conquest of India and the east parts of the world, alleged by Quintus Curtius, which would be a great advancement to our country, wonderful enriching to our prince, and unspeakable commodities to all the inhabitants of Europe. 2.  For, through the shortness of the voyage, we should be abl

Learnedly written by Master Richard Willes , Gentleman . Four famous ways there be spoken of to those fruitful and wealthy islands, which we do usually call Moluccas, continually haunted for gain, and daily travelled for riches therein growing.  These islands, although they stand east from the meridian, distant almost half the length of the world, in extreme heat under the equinoctial line, possessed of infidels and barbarians, yet by our neighbours great abundance of wealth there is painfully s

To the North-West for the search of the passage or strait to China , written by Christopher Hall , and made in the year of our Lord 1576 . Upon Monday, the thirteenth of May, the barque Gabriel was launched at Redriffe, and upon the twenty-seventh day following she sailed from Redriffe to Ratcliffe. The seventh of June being Thursday, the two barques, viz., the Gabriel and the Michael , and our pinnace, set sail at Ratcliffe, and bare down to Deptford, and there we anchored.  The cause was, that

Made to the West and North-West Regions in the year 1577 , with a Description of the Country and People , written by Dionise Settle . On Whit Sunday, being the sixth-and-twentieth day of May, in the year of our Lord God 1577, Captain Frobisher departed from Blackwall—with one of the Queen’s Majesty’s ships called the Aid , of nine score ton or thereabout, and two other little barques likewise, the one called the Gabriel , whereof Master Fenton, a gentleman of my Lord of Warwick’s, was captain; a

Made by Master Martin Frobisher , in the year 1578, written by Thomas Ellis . These are to let you know, that upon the 25th May, the Thomas Allen , being vice-admiral, whose captain was Master Yorke; Master Gibbes, master; Master Christopher Hall, pilot, accompanied with the rear-admiral, named the Hopewell , whose captain was Master Henry Carew, the Master Andrew Dier, and certain other ships, came to Gravesend, where we anchored, and abode the coming of certain other of our fleet, which were n

Passenger in the “ Emmanuel ,” otherwise called the “ Busse of Bridgewater ,” wherein James Leeche was Master , one of the ships in the last voyage of Master Martin Frobisher , 1578, concerning the discovery of the great island in their way homeward , the 12 th of September . The Busse of Bridgewater was left in Bear’s Sound, at Meta Incognita, the 2nd day of September, behind the fleet, in some distress, through much wind riding near the lee shore, and forced there to ride it out upon the hazar

Undertaken in June , 1585, for the discovery of the North-West Passage , written by John James Marchant , servant to the Worshipful Master William Sanderson . Certain honourable personages and worthy gentlemen of the Court and country, with divers worshipful merchants of London and of the West Countrie, moved with desire to advance God’s glory, and to seek the good of their native country, consulting together of the likelihood of the discovery of the North-West Passage, which heretofore had been

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 pes

Gentleman , as chief captain and pilot general for the discovery of a passage to the Isles of the Molucca , or the coast of China , in the year 1587.  Written by John Janes , servant to the aforesaid Master William Sanderson . May.—The 19th of this present month, about midnight, we weighed our anchors, set sail and departed from Dartmouth with two barques and a clincher, the one named the Elizabeth , of Dartmouth, the other the Sunshine , of London, and the clincher called the Ellin , of London;