m aHMMM X i ' THE JEANNETTE COMPLETE AND AUTHENTIC NARRATIVE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ALT. VOYAGES AND F.XPF.DrTIONS TO THE NORTH POLAR REGIONS, CONTAINING A COMPLETE ACCOUNT OF THE MOST REMARKABLE EXAMPLES OF HEROISM, ENDURANCE AND SUFFERING ON RECORD. EMBRACING THE BIOGRAPHY AND VOYAOF.S OF FRANKLIN, KANE, HAYEg, HALL, AND DE LOj^Q, WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF ARCTIC NAVIGATION THROUGH THE VOYAGES OF THE NORSEMEN, THE CABOTS, GILBERT, DAVIS, BARENTZ, HUDSON, BAFFIN, BEIIRING, MACKENZIE, COOK, SCORESBY, PARRY, WRANGELL, ROSS, NARES, NORDENSKIOLD, SCHWATKA, SMITH, YOUNG, AND MANY OTHERS; AN ACCURATE DESCRIPTION OF ALL IMPORTANT SCIENTIFIC AND GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERIES EVER MADE IN THE FROZEN NORTH. CAPT. RICHARD PERRY. V- ELEGANTLY ILLUSTRATED WITH TWO HUNDRED ENGRAVINGS. SAN FRANCISCO, CAL.: v>. - COPYRIGHTED BY THE COBURN & COOK PUBLISHING COMPANY, Press and Types of Blakely, Marsh & Co., Electrotypes of A. Zeese & Co., Donohue & Henneberry, Binders. PRRFAQB.. The universal interest in Arctic exploration which has oeen aroused by the melancholy fate of the Jeannettc, her commander, and so large a portion of her crew, has suggested the writing of this work. While this lias been its direct and immediate inspiration it was deemed advisable to enlarge its scope so as to include similar and correlated voyages from the earliest period. It has been written in sympathy with the heroic efforts of the explorers who in every age have labored in this field for the enlarge- ment of human knowledge. The general interest in literature of this kind is legitimate and even commendable. A wholesome and bracing intellectual tonic, it energizes the mind. The reading of such works cannot produce other than good results. Free from the tedium of minute chronology and burdensome detail, they possess all the most attractive elements of history, biography and travel a triple combination unsurpassed even by poetry, fiction or romance. The taste of the artist and the skill of the engraver have been brought into requisition to enforce and illustrate the information con- veyed, adding a charm and value that will be readily appreciated by every reader. In the hope that this work will contribute its share toward driving out of general circulation the mass of poisonous trash that is suffered to represent, or misrepresent, our current literature among such multitudes of the youth of our land, it is herewith respectfully submitted to the kind consideration and patronage of the public. LIST OF AUTHORITIES. The Following Works have heen used in the Preparation of this Volume: Encyclopaedia Britannica. Appleton's American Cyclopaedia. Chambers' Encyclopaedia. Zell's Encyclopaedia. Johnson's Encyclopaedia. Newman's America. Bancroft's History of the United States. Lippincott's Pronouncing Gazetteer of the World. Lippincott's Pronouncing Biographical Dic- tionary. Bates' Countries of the World. Illustrated Travels. (Six vols.) Whymper's Sea. (Four vols.) Heeren's Works. Wheaton's Explorations. Irving's Columbus. (Three vols.) Frobisher's Three Voyages. Voyages to Cathay and India. Raleigh, Discovery of Guiana. Hakluyt's Voyage to America. De Veer's Three Voyages to China. Hawkins* Voyages. Maynarde's Drake's Voyages. De Veer's Voyages of Wm. Barentz. Cooley's Maritime Inland Discoveries. (Three vols.) Life of Frobisher. Phipp's Voyage to the North Pole. Life of Sir John Franklin. Franklin's First Voyage. Franklin's Second Voyage. Wrangell's Arctic Voyages. Parry's Three Voyages. Voyages of Sabine and Clavering. Back's Arctic Land Expedition. Lyon's Private Journal of Arctic Voyages. Hartwig's Polar World; Verne's Historic des Grands Voyages. Inglefield's Summer Search for Franklin. Richardson's Search for FVanklin. Mayne's 1 Voyages to Arctic Regions. M'Clure's Discovery of Northwest Passage. Elder's Life of Kane. Kane's First Grinnell Expedition. Kane's Second Grinnell Expedition. Hall's Arctic Researches. M'Clintock's Voyage in the Arctic Seas. Tytler's Discoveries in the Polar Seas. Leslie's Discoveries in the Polar Seas. Adventures of British Seamen. Hayes' Open Polar Sea. Hayes' Pictures of Arctic Travel. ' Markham's Arctic Works. Sonntag in Search of Franklin. Tyson's Arctic Experiences. Koldcwey's German Expedition. (Two vols.) Weyprecht and Payer's Voyages. Nares" Polar Voyage. Nordenskiold's Voyage of the Vega. History of Shipwrecks. The New York Herald. Harper's Magazine. Scribner's Monthly. The Library Magazine, and Contemporaneous Papers anil Magazines generally. CONTENTS. PART F. EARLY EXPLORERS I7-&S CHAPTER I. Conceptions of the Ancients Voyage of Pytheas Discovers Thule Origin of the Norseman Political Development A Career of Piracy Greenland and Iceland Colonized Incidental Discovery of North America. CHAPTER II. Portuguese and Spanish Discoveries Portuguese Voyages to North America Voracity of the Spanish Results of Columbus' Discovery Voyage of the Cabots First Voyage Around the World Voyage to La Plata French Voyages. CHAPTER III. Search for Northeast Passage Voyage of Chancellor Enterprise of Muscovy Company. CHAPTER IV. Search for Northwest Passage Resumed Frobisher's Load of Gold Two Voyages of Gilbert Gilbert Shipwrecked Hawkins, the Slave-Trader Drake Sails around Cape Horn. CHAPTER V. Davis Sent Out Trades with Natives of Greenland Great Danger in the Ice Passes Hudson's Bay Raleigh in Search of Gold Disappointment Confined in the Tower. CHAPTER VI. Voyages of the Dutch Northeast Passage Again Barentz Reaches Orange Islands Gerrit De Veer Sickness and Death Surrounded by Bears and Foxes Reappearance of the Sun Burial of Barentz Voyage of Van Noort Fight with Patagonians Defeat the Spanish. PART II. EARLY ARCTIC VOYAGES 69-158 CHAPTER VII. First Arctic Voyage under Bennet Kill Many Walruses Walruses Brought to England Voyage of Knight in the Hopewell Attacked by Savages Voyages of Hudson Fourth and Last Voyage of Hudson. CHAPTER VIII. Voyage of Poole---Biscayan Whale Fishers Button in Search of Hudson Hall's Voyage to Greenland Commercial Voyage Under Baffin F'otherby Bylot Discovery of Baffin's Bay. CHAPTER IX. Voyages of Dutch Resumed Manhattan Island Occupied First Voyage Around the Horn Voyage of Munk Casks Burst by Frost Voyage of the May Flower. CHAPTER X. Voyages of Fox and James Enterprise of Bristol Merchants Marvelous Escape from Icebergs Reach Open Water Land on Charlton Island The Ship Sunk Building a Boat Suffering and Death The Boat Launched Poem of James The Return Voyage. CHAPTER XI. An Interval between Arctic Voyages Wintering in the Arctic Region Death of Mayen Other Dutch Voyages Captain RaevnTLoses his Ship Brutality of a Dutcn Captain Which Is the Way to India? CHAPTER XII. Northwest Voyage of Gillam Alleged Discovery of a Northwest Passage Hudson's Bay Company Chartered A Pilot's Story of the North Pole Voyage of Wood Wreck of Wood's Shin- James Knight Report of Indians Concerning Mines. CHAPTER XIH. Arctic Voyages of the Russians Voyage of the Cossack Deshniev Conquest of Kamchatka Attempted Reduction of the Tchuktchis. ' VII. VIII. CONTENTS CHAPTER XIV. Voyage of Behring Start for Kamchatka River Discovery of Behring' s Strait Reach Land on American Side Investigations of Steller Fright of a Native at the Taste of Brandy Reduced by Sickness Behring Disabled The Ship's Company Divided A Stranded Whale Death of Behring. CHAPTER XV. Swaine Starts from Philadelphia Explorations of Labrador Arctic Exploration by Hearne Instruments Destroyed by Wind Maltreatment of Esquimaux Arctic Voyage of Phipps Reaches Spitzbergen.' CHAPTER XVI. Cook's Enterprise for Discovering- Northwest Passage Leaves Plymouth Extensive Barter with Natives Arrive at Sandwich Islands Outrages of the Hawaiians Captain Cook Murdered Ap- proval of Cook by Royal Society Capt. Clerke bikes Charge of the Expedition Market Furs in Canton. CHAPTER XVII. English and Danish Voyages Frobisher Pond Mackenzie Discovers Mackenzie's River Godthaab Colony Founded Scoresby Makes First Voyage to Greenland William Scoresby, Jr., be- gins Seafaring Life Voyage to Spitzbergen Seas Numerous Remains of Animal Life Scoresby Publishes Account of His Travels Necessity the Mother of Invention Discovers Cape Hope Inau- gurates the Use of Boats and Sledges. PART III. THE FIRST ARCTIC VOYAGES OF THE ipTH CENTURY 159 370 CHAPTER XVIII. Buchan in Dorothea and Trent Dorothea Nearly Destroyed in the Ice Isabella and Alexander under Command of Ross and Parry Encounter Esquimaux Phenomenon of Red Snow Enter Lan- caster Sound Ross Orders a Return. CHAPTER XIX. First Voyage of Parry Object of the Voyage Enter the Arctic Circle Beset in the Ice - Reach Possession Bay Prince Regent Inlet Named Cape York. CHAPTER XX. Trials and Pastimes of an Arctic Winter Health Regulations An Arctic Newspaper An Arctic Theater Daily Occupations Total Absence of the Sun The Appearance of Scurvy Mock Suns More Theatricals Extracts from an Arctic Journal A Shower of Rain. CHAPTER XXI. Struggle with Ice Banks' Land Discovered Provisions Destroyed Out of Danger Parry Orders Full Rations for His Crew The Return Homeward Visit from Esquimaux Description of Native Dress and Manners Arrive in England. CHAPTER XXII. Early Life of Franklin Wounded at New Orleans Statement of the Objects of Franklin's Three Voyages Embarks on First Voyage The First Iceberg Interesting Experiments A Leak in the Ship Trade with Esquimaux Arrive at Fort York Make Ready for Overland Journey. CHAPTER XXIII. Franklin's Journey to Ft. Chippewyan Procuring Guides Speech of an Indian Chief The Re- sources of the Party Start for the Coppermine The Chief Refuses to Proceed Canoe Party Sent to the Coppermine---A Pedestrian Trip Return of Both Parties. CHAPTER XXIV. Journey to the Coppermine Visit to the Copper Mountains Curious Adventure of Dr. Rich- ardson Embarking on the Polar Ocean Pt. Turnagain The Return Terrible Sufferings of the Party Dr. Richardson Risks His Life to Save the Party -Arrival at Ft. Enterprise. CHAPTER XXV. Russian Arctic Voyages Laptew Brothers Failure of Schalarow- - -Remains of Mammoth Arc- tic Voyages of Billings Plundered by Natives Frequency of Animal Remains Kotzebue's Voyage Unwelcome Hospitality A Unique Island. CHAPTER XXVI. Russian Expeditions Wrangell Wood Hills Descent of the Lena -Father Michel Clothing for Winter Procured --Start for Cape Schelagskoi A Sledge Loaded Tenting in the Arctic Re- gionsSevere Cold Return River Trading Brandy to Natives A Siberian Fair Unwelcome Hospitality A Tchuktchi Dance. CONTENTS. IX. CHAPTER XX VII. Wrangell's Second Sledge-Journey Encounter with a Bear A Salt Moor Surplus Provisions " by Bears Return to Lower Kolvmsk Summer Occupations Almost an Acci- Deposited Attacked by Bears Return to Lower Kolymsk Summer Occup dent Winter at Nishni Kolymsk. CHAPTER XXVIII. Wrangell's Third Sledge-Journey Easter Sunday Views the Open Sea Explore th Meet Kosmin Importunity of Bereshnoi Generosity of a Jakut Return to Kolymsk. ie Tundnis CHAPTER XXIX. Wrangell's Fourth Sledge-Journey Start for Great Baranicha Rumors of a Northern Conti- nent Afloat Wraiigell Sees the Arctic Danger Meet with Matinschkin A Native Speculator Serfdom Close of Wrangell's Efforts. CHAPTER XXX. Parry's Second Voyage to the Northwest Sharp Natives Cairns Discovered Numerous Dis- coveries Exploration in Boats In Winter Quarters Theatricals as a Pastime Esquimaux Snow Huts Intelligence Among Natives A Northern Geographer Killed by a Fall. CHAPTER XXXI. Parry Attempts to Free His Ships Iglooklik Island A Necropolis Supposea Discovery of the Polar Sea Hecla and Fury Strait Gluttony Unusual Phenomenon Melville Peninsula Explored Successful Angling Still Beset Death from Scurvy Welcome at Shetland Islands. CHAPTER XXXII. Second Voyage of Franklin State of Arctic Science---Preparations and Plan---Death of Franklin's Wife- --Franklin Plants His Flag on an Arctic Island---Fort Franklin- --Descend the Mac- kenzie- --Separation of the Two Parties- --Serious Adventure with Esquimaux- --The Boats Plun- dered-'-Franklin's Return- --Success of Richardson- --Return to England. CHAPTER XXXIII. Parry's Third Expedition- --Slow Progress- --New Ice Encountered ---The Fury Swept Away--- Winter at Port Bowen---Observations---Huntmg---Capture of a Whale---The Fury Aleak---In- specting the Ships- --The Fury Abandoned- --Report to the Admiralty. CHAPTER XXXIV. Arctic Voyage of Sabihe and Clavering---Hammerfest---Cod-fishmg---Discovery of Pendu- lum Islands- --Proceed to Cape Parry---Life of Sabine. CHAPTER XXXV. Lyon's Arctic Voyage---Rowe's Welcome- --Lyon's Prayer for Help- --Safety- --Return to England. CHAPTER XXXVI. Beechey's Arctic Voyage Sail from Spithead---Kotzebue Sound---Remarkable Phenomena--- Return Reef ---Journey Homeward. CHAPTER XXXVII. Parry in Search of the Pole---Plan for Sledge-Journey---ReindeerTravel---Graves Discovered Mussel Bay---Fine Weather- --The "Enterprise and "Endeavor"---Reindeer Abandoned---Arrive at Hecla Cove- --Relief ---The Character of Polar Ice. CHAPTER XXXVIII. Ross' Second Voyage Employed by Felix Booth James C. Ross First Use of Steam in Arctic Voyages Lancaster Sound Nipped in the Ice In Winter Quarters Visited by Esquimaux Ex- hausted Teams Provisions Reduced Magnetic Pole Discovered. CHAPTER XXXIX. Back's Arctic Journey Leaves Liverpool Fort Resolution Great Fish River An Arctic Resi- dence Akaitcho A Sledge -Journey Passing Rapids Cape Richardson Voyage in the Terror The Terror Nipped in the Ice Imprisoned A Masquerade Increase of Leakage Free Again. CHAPTER XL. Dease and Simpson in North America Winter at Fort Confidence Shooting Escape Rapid Cape Pelly Richardson's River Montreal Island Middendorf in Taimur Peninsula Descends the Yenesei Samoyeds Hunting Butterflies Arctic Animals Taimur Lake Left Alone Farewell to the Taimur. X. CONTENTS. PART IV. F KAN KLIN AND SEARCH VOYAGES ............................................................. S? 1 "?^ CHAPTER XLI. Franklin's Last Voyage Temerity of Franklin and Party Chosen by the Admiralty The Erebus and Terror Last Intelligence of Franklin Franklin's Favorite Theory The Search Com- ments on Arctic Science. CHAPTER XLII. Search for Franklin Last News Three Expeditions Planned Expedition under Richardson and Rae Instructions of the Admiralty Arrive in America A ">oublesome Songster Methy Por- tage A Cache Mendacious Esquimaux. CHAPTER XLIII. Richardson's Journey Toward the Coppermine An Early Winter A Reasonable Theory Con- jecturesReturn to Fort Confidence Plan for the Summer Rae's Expedition Confer with Esqui- maux Return to the Coppermine Interpreter Drowned Lost in the W iods Approval of the Admiralty. CHAPTER XLIV. Expedition under Sir James C. Ross Instructions of the Admiralty Preparations Upcr- navik In a Pack Maxwell Bay A Novel Expedient Spring Occupations Three Surveying Parties An Arctic House Wellington Channel Nipped Imprisoned A Miraculous Escape A Forced Retreat Comments on Arctic Navigation. CHAPTER XLV. Expedition via Behring's Strait The Herald and Plover Pullen's Boat Journey Lancaster Sound Great Preparations Discoveries The Prince Albert Returns to England Sledge-Journey The Prince Albert A Critical Situation Winter on Board the Prince Albert. CHAPTER XLVI. Search under McClure and Collinson The Enterprise and Investigator Sent Out Again Around Cape Horn Sandwich Islands In Kotzebue Sound Alone in the Arctic A Cairn Erected A Light- Fingered Native Aground A Cool Reception A Novel Chronology False Hope Northwest Pas- sage Predicted. CHAPTER XLVH. Signs of Winter Beset Prepared for Danger Wintering in the Arctic Polar Hunting Grounds Summer Again Prince Albert's Cape The Enterprise Anxiety in England Relief Expeditions A Second Winter in the Arctic The Search The Discovery Pirn's. Reception A Happy Crew Abandonment of the Investigator. CHAPTER XLVIH. Belcher's Innovation His Instructions to Capt. Kellett Return to England A Court Martial A British Writer's Fancy Osborn and Cator Traces Report of Rae's Discoveries A Thrilling Storv. CHAPTER XI IX. First Grinnell Expedition Action of Congress Benevolence of Mr. Grinnell Instructions Leave New York Melville Bay In a Lead Ice -Navigation Arctic Flora A Fortunate Escape. CHAPTER L. A Comparison Meet with English Squadron Search in Concert Graves Discovered Varying Conclusions End of Summer Together Once More Unpleasant Information An Unexpected Drift. CHAPTER LI. Arrangements Icy Analogies Depressing Influence Ingenious Remedies The Histrionic Art Threatened bva Berg The Sun Reappears The Ice-saw The Grand Break-up--Toward the Green- land Coast A Short Respite. CHAPTER LII. A Pleasant Party Cultivated Tastes Dangerous Feats The National Day Bound for the North Again Escape from Melville Bay Homeward Results of the Voyage. CHAPTER LIU. Expedition of Inglefield In the Navy Yard The Crew Adverse Influences At Fiskernaes Greenland Piety Devil's Thumb Various" Discoveries Nearly Shipwrecked A Watchful Bear. CHAPTER LIV. Biography of Kane Early Qualities Formal Education In Wretched Health Decides upon a Life of Celibacv His Love-Life Criticisms. CONTENTS. XI CHAPTER LV. Theory of Kane The Pole of Greatest Cold His Appointment and Instructions His dlle Bay Smith's Sound Great Peril Extreme Latitude The Advance at Anchor. CHAPTER LVI. Kane Leads a Boat and a Sledge Expedition A Greenland River The Eightieth Parallel "The Same Ice Surrounds Her Still " Preparations for Winter A Cache Party Accidents at the Brig Difficulties of Arctic Observation Hans, the Hunter Return of an Absent Friend A Preliminary Survey An Unexpected Return Kane Saves the Party. CHAPTER LVII. Visit from Esquimaux Native Dishonesty A Journey to Humboldt Glacier Tennyson's Monument Kane's Strength Fails Moral Power of Kane Hayes' Expedition Morton Discovers an Alleged Polar Sea. CHAPTER LVIII. Attempted Journey to Beechey Island Preliminary Council Good Fortune Corrects Ingle- field's Errors A Storm 'on the Bay An Effort for Freedom A Record Deposited Departure of Hayes and Party A Dangerous Experiment Esquimaux Friendship A Primitive Contract Hayes' Party Returns A Description of their Wanderings Kalutunah Kane's Wonderful Buoyancy A Diabolical Plot Its Defeat. CHAPTER LIX. Parting from Friends--Hans Proves Susceptible --Embarking- -A Feast--~A. Seal KilledThe Annual Oil Boat- -Arrival at UpernavikHartstene s Search- -Kane's L: Kane Determines to Abandon the BrigRemoval of Boats and Sledges--To the Water's Edge-- ids--Hans Proves Susceptible --Embarking- -A Feast-- ' .t UpernavikHartstene s Search- -Kane's Last Days. CHAPTER LX. McClintock in Command of the Fox His Choice of Officers Caught in the Pack of Baffin's Bay A Winter in the Ice Arrive on King William's Island Hudson Discovers a Record A Mourn- ful Inference Two Skeletons A Curious Medley Testimony of the Esquimaux Woman Impor- tance of McClintock's Investigations. CHAPTER LXI. Hall's First Voyage A Generous Offer Mr. Grinnell's Agency Kudlago At Holsteinberg To Northumberland Inlet Runaways The Black Eagle A Transformation A New Use of the Tongue. CHAPTER LXH. Chappell Inlet A Grief-Stricken Daughter A Deserted Village A Delicacy Wreck of the Rescue The Georgiana Saved Cant. Parker Tookoolito A Generous Offer A Sudden Change A Strange Custom In a Starving Condition Robbed by Dogs Hall Takes up his Residence with Innuits. CHAPTER LXIII. A Deer Killed by Dogs Frozen to Death The Approach of Spring Bayard Taylor Pass A Native Historian The Breeding Place of the Deer The " Dreaded Land " Subsistence in Arctic Regions An Unsafe Boat An Important Journey Postponed. CHAPTER LXIV. The Ship Free A Series of Adventures Iron Island Jones' Cape Cape Stevens Fresh Waters Peale Point Jordan's River The Return Coal Countess of Warwick's Sound Home- ward Bound. PART V. RECENT POLAR EXPEDITIONS 587-736 CHAPTER LXV. Theory of Hayes Announces his Plan Subscriptions A Present The Start Icebergs Th Kayak Proven Upernavik Strange Scenes Cape York A Gale Almost a Wreck Hartstene Bav CHAPTER LXVI. Hayes in Winter Quarters Manifold Preparations An Ice Fiord Explored " Brother John's Glacier" Sonntag Surveys the Glacier A Well Filled Larder An Arctic Journal Knorr's Speech Unusual Weather A Serious Calamity Aurora Borealis Search for Sonntag Account of Sonntag's Disaster. CHAPTER LXVII. XII CONTENTS. CHAPTER LXVIII. German Expedition under Koldewey The Plan of Dr. Petermann Eulogy on Koldewey Departure from Bremerhaven Separation from the Hansn A Series of Dangers Wreck of the Hansa The Coal House The Drift on the Ice An Alarm Danger from Starvation Arriving- at Frederichstahl At Home. CHAPTER LXIX. The Germania in East Greenland The Bienenkorb Clavering Island Shannon Island A Question ASledge-Jour-ney Fligely Fiord Kuhn Island The Germania Moored for Winter Relics of a Decayed Community Attacked by a Bear Wide Experience with Animal Life An Encounter with Walruses The Germania Becomes Free Return to Germany. CHAPTER LXX. Hall's Second Voyage Discovers Relics of Franklin The Polaris Officers Selected for Third Voyage Ebierbing and Tookoolito A Difference of Opinion The Highest Point Last Words Penned by Hall Sledge -Journey to the North Sickness anl Death of Hall Comments on Hall The Polaris in Danger Nineteen Persons Left on the Ice A Drift of Nearly Ten Degrees. CHAPTER LXXI. Adventures of Tyson and Party on the Ice Msver S .vept Away An Agony of Suspense The Inevitable Gale Again A Sight of the Stars Rescued at List Experience of the Polaris Crew The Ship Abandoned On the Ocean in Boats Picked up Arrive at Dundee. CHAPTER LXXII. Austro- Hungarian Expediti'm A Pioneer Expedition The Isbjorn Inferences Tegetthoff Arctic Scenes Beset The Floe Cracks A Terrible Watch A House on the Ice Great Discoveries Fall of a Sledge Franz -Josef's Lmd A Necessary Conclusion March to the Sea Saved by a Rus- sian Whaler. CHAPTER LXXIII. English Expedition under Nares The Alert and Discovery Boring Through the Pack The Elysium of the Arctic Regions Maxim of Ross Th j Discoverv Finds Winter Quarters The Sea of Ancient Ice Winter Amusements Death from Exposure --Exemption of Officers from Disease Markham's Sledge Journey Reaches the Highest Point Ever Attained Palaeocrystic Ice Nares Concludes to Return to England Epitaph on the Grave of Hall. CHAPTER LXXIV. , Schwatka Expedition The Eothen Officers and Crew In King William's Land Confirm- tion of Rae's Testimony Grave of Lieut. Irving Ho na ge fro.n A nerica and Great Britain. CHAPTER LXXV. Sweden in Arctic Explorations Nordenskiold's Numerous Polar Voyages The Sofia in King's Bay Voyage to the Mouth of the Obi Samoyed Tents A Problem in Navigation Solved Nor- denskiold's Preparation His Sledge -Journeys Funds Provided The Vega Purchased. CHAPTER LXXVI. Furnishing and Managing of the Vega The LenaThe Frazer The Express- -The Vega Leaves Gothenburg- -First Scientific Notes- -Dwarfed Trees --Barentz' House Discovered Chabarova Samoyed Life--Their Dealings with the Russians- -The Household Gods of the Samoyeds--A Tadibe. CHAPTER LXXVII. The Vega Continues Her Voyage to the Northeast- -Cape Polander King Oscar BayThe Old Problem Solved The Northernmost Point of Asia Animal Life The Vega and Lena Part Com- pany- -New Ice Begins to Form Around the Vega- -Tchuktchis Life Among the Natives --Reach Cape Onman. CHAPTER LXXVIII. The Vega in Winter Quarters- The Usual Preparations- -The Average Cold- -The Home of Honesty Nordenskiold's Excursion to Pidlin Celebration of Christmas-- Visitors at the Vega- Auroral Displays Comments on the Animal Life of the Region A Tchuktchi Graveyard --The Ap- proach of Release. CHAPTER LXXIX. Freed from Her Moorings- -Diomede Island St. Lawrence Island --Nordenskiold Reaches a Telegraph Station At Yokohama A Series of Festivals At Hong Kong Ceylon- -Christmas at Sea The Suez Canal A R-eception at BoulogneThe Grand Celebration Comments on the Expedition. CONTENTS. PART VI. THE JEANNE-FTE 737-835 CHAPTER LXXX. Some Comments on^Arctic NavigationIts Retrospect, Dangers, and Prospects--The Desire of ortsmouth. CHAPTER LXXXI. James Gordon BennettThe Pandora -- Her Voyage uuder Allen Young- -At Dfsco At Upernavik Discovery of Sir John Ross" Yacht, Mary--Northumberland--Arrive at Por Mr. Bennett Purchases the Pandora- -Expense of the ExpeditionThe Crew--Lieut. DeLong's Letter to the Secretary of the Navy Her Departure from San Francisco Bay--A Graphic Descrip- tionAt Ounalaska TDeLong Communicates Varied Information to the Secretary. CHAPTER LXXXII. From Ounalaska to St. Lawrence Bay Soundings Relief Watches-- Off Stuart's island The Stock of DogsCivilized Costumes- -A Volcanic RegionA Hunting Party from the Jeannette A Russian BathThe Fanny A. Hyde A Forced Treaty with the Canines Visited by Tchuktchis- -De- Long's Dispatch. CHAPTER LXXXIII. The Jeannette Enters the Arctic Arrives at Kolyutchin Bay First Bear and Seal KilledThe Jeannette Firmly Frozen inDanenhower's Statement- The Winter Night Begins- -Herald Island in Sight The Jeannette Helpless and Crippled Conjectures as to the Jeannette's Fate Continued Apprehension. CHAPTER LXXXIV. Jeannette Relief Expedition in 1880 The Corwin Capt. Hooper- -At Ounalaska- -An Impene- trable Wall-A Frightful Scene of Desolation-A Ship Apprehended -The Lotila-A Wreck-The Corwin Sights Wrangell Land- -The English Relief Yacht, Eira-- Failure of the Expedition- -Second American Relief Expedition- -The Gulnare An Adverse Report Refitted and Manned A Disas- trous Delay Further Hindered by the Elements --An Abortive Effort. CHAPTER LXXXV. The Jeannette in the Extremity of Peril Anxiety on Shipboard Near Wrangell Land Chipp's Soundings Extracts from the Jeannette's Log The Ice BoredA Party of Explorers Discoveries A Thick Fog- -The Last Entry in the Log. CHAPTER LXXXVI. Second Voyage of the Corwin Her Officers- -Enter the Arctic Struggles to Reach Wrangell LandCruise of the Rodgers Commander Berry's Letter Land on Herald Island Burning of the Rodgers-The Rodgers Party Board the North Star-The Eira Again-The Alliance. CHAPTER LXXXVII. The Jeannette Disappears from Sight A Plan of Escape Parties Detailed Hardships-- Making for the Land --Cape Emma- -The Three Boat- Loads Thaddeus Island The Adventure of Chipp and Kuehne A Deer-Hunt Danenhower's Last Talk with Chipp No Other Boats in Sight. CHAPTER LXXXVIII. DeLong's Cutter Reaches the Coast His Diary of Misfortunes Alexai Sees a Hut Onlv a Chipp DeLong's Diary Closes Death of Most of the Party Danenhower's Story. CHAPTER LXXXIX. The Loss of the Jeannette Proclaimed Melville Starts in Search of DeLong His Plan Mel- ville Finds the Bodies of DeLong and Party- -Gilder's Storv- -Their Common Grave No Traces of Chipp The Survivors Return HomeCaskets For warded F"ormal Examination of Danenhower and Melville Schemes to Reach the Pole Polar Scientific Congress. LIST OF. ILLUSTRATIONS. Pago. THEJEANNETTE CRUSHED IN THE ICE. (Frontispiece.) NORSE VIKING 22 NORSE SHIPS. (Full Page.) 25 STONE TOWER AT NEWPORT 2b COLUMBUS' FIRST SIGHT OF LAND. (Full Page.) 31 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 32 COLUMBUS UNDER ARREST. (Full Page.) 33 SEUASTIAN CABOT. (Full Page.) 36 JACQUES CARTIER 39 FROBISHER PASSING GREENWICH. (Full Page.) 44 PoitTitAiT OF FROBISHER 40 CODFISHING ON THE BANKS OF NEWFOUNDLAND. (Full Page.) 4$ SIR WALTER RALEIGH 55 MOCK SUNS AS SEEN BY BARENTZ. (Full Page.) Oi HENRY HUDSON 74 VIEW ON THE HUDSON 75 CAPE HORN 90 LANDING OF THE MAY FLOWER ... 93 BUILDING A BOAT. (Full Page.) 100 TCHUKTCHIS BUILDING A HUT. (Full Page.) 122 ESQUIMAUX HOUSE. (Full Page.) 127 STRANDED WHALE. (Full Page.) 134 WILLIAM SCORESBY 15,6 SIR JOHN Ross , 162 DOROTHEA AND TRENT. (Full Page.) 163 SIR WILLIAM EDWARD PARRY 169 MOCK SUNS. (Full Page.) 181 GROUP OF CHILDREN. (Full Page.) 192 SIR JOHN FRANKLIN 199 FORT ENTERPRISE. (Full Page.) ...20^ DR. RICHARDSON'S ADVENTURE WITH WOLVES. (Full Page.) 213 PERRAULT DIVIDING HIS STORE. (Full Page.) 217 SKELETON OF MAMMOTH. (Full Page.) 224 BARON VON WRANGELL 231 SIBERIAN DOG-SLEDGE. (Full Page.) 233 ATTACKED BY BEARS. (Full Page.) 247 SEA BEARS OF SIBERIA 259 DRESS OF NATIVE. 26S AN ARCTIC SCENE. (Full Page ) 270 ESQUIMAUX SNOW VILLAGE. (Full Page.) --273 ILIGLIUK ..' 279 ESQUIMAUX FISHING. (Full Page.) 2t>4 ESQUIMAUX CHILD'S DRESS. 293 SUN AT MIDNIGHT, (Full Page.) 299 ARCH IN ARCTIC REGIONS. (Full Page.) 315 SLEIGH DRAWN BY SINGLE REINDEER 322 MUSSEL BAY 325 PLAN OF ARCTIC SLEDGE. (Full Page.) 327 KITCHEN AT FORT RELIANCE 350 THE TERROR NIPPED IN THE ICE. (Full Page.) 355 XIV. fLL US TRA 7 IONS X V Page. SAMOYED CHIEFTAIN. (Full Page.) 367 BUST OF FRANKLIN. (Full Page.) 371; ESQUIMAUX OF NORTH AMERICA 386 BEAR ATTACKED BY WOLVES. (Full Page.) 393 IN A LEAD. (Full Page.) 401 PERILS OF SLEDGE TRAVEL 413 ARCTIC HARES 424 H. M. S. INTREPID ICED IN. (Full Page.) 428 CUTTING ICE DOCKS. (Full Page.) 435 RELICS OF FRANKLIN. (Full Page.) 436 ARCTIC TOOLS 445 ARCTIC PLANT (actual size) 447 ON BEECHEY ISLAND 452 SHOOTING SEALS 458 FISKERN^ES. (Full Page.) 477 Dr. E. K. KANE. (Full Page.) 483 SMITH'S SOUND 494 GLACIER SEEN BY KANE 498 KANE IN WINTER QUARTERS. (Full Page) 501 WILLIAM MORTON ---Sio WATCHING FOR A SEAL 518 CATCHING BIRDS 520 KALUTUNAH, AN ESQUIMAUX CHIEF. (Full Page.) 523 HANS, WIFE, AND RELATIVES. 528 OFF TO THE OPEN SEA 530 STATUE OF FRANKLIN. (Full Page.) 542 CHARLES FRANCIS HALL 547 CAPT. SIDNEY O. BUDDINGTON 553 INNUIT WOMAN'S HEAD DRESS 569 OPHIURID OF NORTHERN SEAS. (Full Page.) 579 EBIERBING, TOOKOOLITO, AND CHILD. (Full Page.) 583 DR. I. I. HAYES 591 BROTHER JOHN'S GLACIER 601 THE LITTLE AUK 604 POINT ISABELLA 619 WHALE SOUND. (Full Page.) 620 DEVIL'S CASTLE. (Full Page-) 625 EAST GREENLAND VILLAGE 633 ENCOUNTER WITH WALRUSES. (Full Page.) 638 HIGHEST POINT ACHIEVED BY THE POLARIS 642 BURIAL OF HALL 645 GRAVE OF HALL 647 CAPT. GEORGE E. TYSON 653 GROUP OF SURVIVORS OF TYSON'S RAFT. (Full Page.) 6^4 PERILOUS SITUATON OF THE POLARIS 659 START OF PAYER'S SLEDGE EXPEDITON. (Full Page.) 665 TRANSPORTING WOOD FOR THE HOUSE 667 FALL OF SLEDGE. (Full Page.) 670 DISCOVERY BAY 631 GRAVE OF LIEUT. IRVING 689 PROF. A. E. NORDENSKIOLD ..692 SAMOYED ENCAMPMENT. (Full Page.) 695 THE CLOUD BERRY 702 DWARFED TREES IN SIBERIA 703 BARENTZ' HOUSE, EXTERIOR AND INTERIOR. (Full Page.) 705 SAMOYED SLEDGE 707 ARCTIC HAIR-STAR 712 STAR-FISH OF NORTHERN WATERS 714 CHRISTMAS EVE ON BOARD THE VEGA. (Full Page.) 723 AURORAL DISPLAY SEEN FROM THE VEGA. (Full Page.) 726 A' VI. ILL USTRA T1ONS. Page. THE JEANNETTE IN SAN FRANCISCO BAY. (Full Page.) 742 LIEUT. GEORGE W. DELONG 749 THE JEANNETTE PASSING GOLDEN GATE. (Full Page.) 751 JEROME J. COLLINS 756 LIEUT. JOHN W. DANENHOWER 769 LIEUT. CHARLES W. CHIPP 782 WILLIAM M. DUNBAR 785 BURNING OF THE ROGERS. (Full Page.) 798 PARLIAMENT HOUSE AT REIKIAVIK 801 ARCTIC SLEDGE 804 DR. J. M. AMBLER r 806 DEPARTURE OF NINDERMAN AND NOROS. (Full Page.) 808 RAYMOND L. NEWCOMB .- 811 GEO. W. MELVILLE , 816 EXTERIOR OF CONVICT HUT IN SIBERIA 821 GROUP OF SURVIVORS OF JEANNETTE EXPEDITION. (Full Page.) 825 MELVILLE FINDING DE LONG AND PARTY. (Full Page.) 828 GRAVE OF DE LONG AND PARTY. (Full Page.) 831 JEANNETTE SEARCH EXPEDITION 830 COMMANDER CHEYNE'S PLAN FOR REACHING THE POLE 833 MAP OF POLAR REGIONS. (Full Page.) 835 TAIL PIECES THREE SHIPS 28 HEAD OF NATIVE 51 HEAD OF NATIVE ' ., 57 SLEDGE PARTY 68 NATIVE ON SNOW SHOES 81 GREENLAND PILOT 94 GULLS 104 ICEBERG 1 1 1 SLEDGE PARTY 119 DRAGGING THE BOAT 124 GOTHIC ICEBERG 167 ARCTIC DRESS 187 OOMIAK 203 CAMP LIFE 219 HEAD OF TCHUKTCHI 228 SEAL-SKIN CUP 256 CHILD'S SLEDGE 265 EWERAT, A SORCEROR .' 2 77 THE WALNUT SHELL , 295 BALE OF PEMMICAN 310 ESQUIMAUX KNIFE 330 A GREAT AUK 345 ESQUIMAUX MOTHER 379 HEAD OF WALRUS 387 HEAD OF ESQUIMAUX DOG 414 HEAD OF REINDEER 431 THE ARCTIC OWL 449 ESQUIMAUX SPEAR 459 CAUGHT IN A TRAP 488 ARCTIC AQUATICS 496 DOG SHOE 505 KANE'S FAVORITE DOG .' 512 ESQUIMAUX WOMAN'S KNIFE 533 PART I. EXPLIIHEKS.-4 " When swords are gleaming you shall see The Norseman 's face flash gloriously, With looks that make thefoeman reel; His mirror from of old was steel. And still he wields in battle" 1 s hour That old Thorns hammer of Norse power; Strikes, with a desperate arm of might, And at the last tug turns the fight, For never yields the Norseman. " CHAPTER I. CONCEPTIONS OF THE ANCIENTS VOYAGE OF PYTHEAS DISCOVERS THULE ORIGIN OF THE NORSEMEN- POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT A CAREER OF PIRACY GREENLAND AND ICELAND COLONIZED INCIDENTAL DISCOVERY OF NORTH AMERICA. Although with the discovery and colonization of Greenland and Ice- land by the Noi'semen, practically begins our knowledge of the Arctic seas, the secrets of the hidden North had long been a favorite theme of speculation. The fruitful imaginations of the ancients attached marvel- ous features to this mysterious region. It was the region of darkness, but as in the succession of events day sprung from night, so in their thought did light and its benefits emanate from the North. Here the Hindoos located the dwelling-place of their deities, where those divine beings veiled their godlike attributes in misty obscurity. Here dwelt the gods of Scandinavia ; and from here they directed watchful eyes to guard and protect the interests of their worshipers. When the Aurora Borealis shed its soft light over the frosty earth, dispelling with its radiant glory the gloom of night, then the simple minds of the people discovered in the sky the dreadful shapes of their gods, and trembled and rejoiced. Thus, too, the father of history relates how the Hyperboreans " of all the human race, the most virtuous and happy, dwelt in perpetual peace and delightful companionship with the deities, under cloudless skies, in fields clothed with perpetual verdure, where the fruitful soil yields twice- yearly harvests, its blest inhabrtants attain extreme old age, and at last, when satiated with life, joyfully crown their heads with flowers, and plunge headlong from the mountain steeps into the depths of the sea." But all this belongs to tradition and song rather than to history. The happiness we crave is instinctively located in some far-off, unattain- 19 20 VOYAGE OF PTTHEAS. able place, and the existence of this tendency may explain the facts above recorded. All the certain knowledge which nations of antiquity had of northern territories may be very briefly summarized, for as yet compass and sextant were unknown, and the few intrepid adventurers that dared at all to brave the fury of the sea, did so almost blindfolded, and at the peril of their lives. The Tynans and Phrenicians had left their native shores to find in other regions, the wealth which their own rugged coasts yielded so scantily. Carthage had been founded on the coast of Africa ; and the Greeks, in the traditional voyage of the Argo, had wreathed themselves with glory and given a subject for many a pleasing song ; but none as yet had ventured to try the dark regions of the North, and its secrets remained its own, to be unlocked bv the genius and bravery and invention of more modern times. Thus, all records by northern historians of the events occurring before the Christian era may be set down as mythical or uncertain ; for classical antiquity exhibits a very obscure notion of the geography of Europe beyond the German Ocean. This is illustrated in the fact that the ancient Greeks and Romans considered Scandinavia an island, or cluster of islands in the Northern Seas ; and other ideas, equally erroneous, suffice to show the obscurity in classic times which clothed this unex- plored region. The first, and for a long time the only voyage to northern regions, recorded by any nation of letters, was made by Pylheas of Marseilles a Greek colony in France. The date of Pytheas, who was the most celebrated navigator of his time, is 'approximately placed at 330 B. C., making him about contem- poraneous with Alexander the Great. He is the only explorer of the pre-Christian period, who, so far as we may judge from authentic records, at all approached in spirit the heroes of modern navigation. Regarding his birth and the circumstances of his private life we have little or no trustworthy information ; but what is more important to us in this connection, we know that he explored the Northern Seas of Europe. The ancient geographers, like conservative pedants of a more recent period, professed to place little reliance on his statements. Both DISCOVERS THULB. 21 Polybius and Strabo treat him with the utmost severity and ridicule, and mention his accounts as absurd and incredible a proceeding quite customarily following any important discovery on land or sea, in mind or matter, philosophy or art. "Absurd " has echoed through the ages, as the response of the ignorant to what has been contrary to their pre- conceived notions. Modern writers are inclined to set more value on the accounts of Pytheas, as well as on all of the best known ancient writers. We gather that he sailed through the English Channel, and, after leaving Britain, a voyage of six days to the North brought him to an island which he called Thule, where he says the sun never descends below the horizon for a certain period at the summer solstice. This statement would apply to Iceland, but the incredulous are supposed to identify his island with one of the Orkneys, because it seems unlikely that Pyth- eas could have reached Iceland in six days. In Greek enumeration, as in our own, an error of transcription is very easy ; and it is more rational to look for a mistake there than to reject a fact of observation which is certainly not applicable to the Orkney Islands ; these, more- over, are several in number, and are so close to the mainland, as not properly to fall under the description of being six days' sail from Britain. Some have thought that he had come upon a portion of Norway or Denmark, but the evidence of this is not conclusive. He visited some island at least, and probably named it from his native telos, meaning the goal or the farthest point. Pytheas afterward entered the Baltic, and reached a river which he called Tanais, which critics believe to be the Elbe. Here he found a people who made use of amber instead of wood, and as that substance is still found in large quantities in Prussia, thei'e is little doubt that he must have visited that part of Europe. He gave an account of his voyages in two works " Description of the Ocean " which contains his voyage to Thule, and " Periplus," or circumnavigation. He seems to have been the first to determine the latitude of a place from the sun's shadow, and the first to suspect that the tides are influenced by the moon. It is safe to say that he had more of the spirit of discovery and observation than 22 ORIGIN OF THE NORTHMEN his untraveled, though scholarly, critics, and with the light of modern research and the aid of modern appliances, such a spirit would doubtless have done much to unravel the tangled skein of northern mysteries. The true inception of Arctic discovery has already been referred to the Norsemen, whose developments and achievements we may now do well to consider. VOYAGES OF THE NORSEMEN, The Norsemen, or Northmen, were known to the ancients as Scan- dinavians, a more distinctive and appropriate designation which again bids fair to become current in our own day. Some words are like fashions in clothing, they are discarded for a time, but in a genera- tion or two are once more brought into use because of some special appropriate- ness or utility. Every town, city, county, state, nation, or other geographical dis- trict may have its North- men, but Scandinavians or Norsemen are a special class of Northmen. Norse- men is to be preferred for its terseness, and because Scandinavian has an appearance of being sometimes used in a more limited sense than is here proposed. The original horde from which they sprung seems to have been among the last of the swarms which migrated from the highlands of Central Asia, the original home of the Indo-European or Aryan family of races. In those early days when they began to look around them f<5V a new home, they found by their migratory experience, if not otherwise, that their elder brothers, the Per- NORSE VI -KING. SEA-LIFE OF THE NORSEMEN. 23 sians, Greeks, Latins, Celts and Sclavs, had seized the southern and cen- tral portions of Asia and Europe, and there remained but the lands of the inhospitable North. These they overspread, subduing the earlier inhab- itants, the stunted and swarthy Finns of the great northern peninsula. This was an overland migration, and the immigrants had no knowledge of ships. In the eighth century of our era they had so increased and multiplied that they might be said to have beeji compelled to renew their travels, this time by water. Meanwhile they had learned to build and use ships. The cold hillsides of their native land had been brought into rude culti- vation to supplement the more fertile plains. But still they grew and multiplied and necessity taught them to find in their inlets and bays a valuable addition to their stores of food. Fishing, the natural introduc- tion to seafaring, is calculated to produce hardy and dexterous seamen. And we find that the Norse leaders and their crews, when they sprung into the foreground of mediaeval history, were bold and skillful mariners, brave and active fighters, and ever ready to face danger in pursuit of spoils. They were more than a match for the agricultural, manufactur- ing and commercial nations round about them. Their agriculture was scant, and of trade and manufacture they were ignorant. If to these be added the all-pervading influence of a religion which taught that death in battle was but a passage to the happy immortality of Valhalla, we have a combination of the conditions necessary to form a conquering people. As is usual in the early history of nations, they are found divided into a number of tribes or clans under petty kings or chiefs. At the actual period of their historic inroads they were just passing into the more pre- tentious form of consolidated monarchies, with the chiefs of the old reg- ime crystalizing into the hereditary nobles of the new, and especially of the rank known in their language as jarls, in ours, earls. Though polit- ically subordinate to the sovereign, these earls retained much of their former power in their relations to those beneath them. Whether by the term vikings we are to understand these chieftains as if" vice-kings" or, as seems more probable, " fiord-folk's," it is certain that leaders and people alike were enterprising and brave. 24 PIRACY. It was soon found that the relatively luxurious and effeminate deni- zens of southern lands could be easily induced by a little show of violence to purchase their lives by the surrender of a portion of their w'ealth, or be made easy victims to the hardihood and daring of those " Grim vikings, who found rapture In the sea-fight, and the capture, And the life of slavery," to which they reduced such as were not rich enough to pay a ransom. The Norse vikings, with no wealth but their ships, no hope but their swords, swarmed upon the ocean, plundered every district they could approach, and for several centuries spread blood, rapine and misery over the nations of Europe. All their habits, feelings and associations were ferocious. They regarded piracy and plunder as the most honorable method of securing wealth. Raw flesh was a toothsome delicacy, pity was weakness, and tears were unmanly. They relieved the monotony of the regular occupation of killing and plundering adults by a sort of sportive game in which they tossed from lance to lance, with wonderful dexterity and precision, helpless infants wrenched from the arms of their slaughtered mothers. They knew no glory but the destruction of their "enemies "or victims. When they fell upon a district they not onlv robbed it of its accumulated wealth, but destroyed the growing crops with ruthless barbarity. Peaceful, prosperous and civilized communities had a very special value as a rich harvest to be gathered all the more easily because of the refinement of the owners. With the exception of the warlike Franks inured to war's alarms and encouraged by a long array of military successes under their great Karl (Charlemagne), Europe lay at the feet of the freebooters of the North. To do them justice, however, or rather to enforce the law which impels man to postpone the hazard of his life until all peaceful means of support are exhausted, we call the reader's attention to the fol- owing fact. Before entering on a career of piracy, the Northmen had sought to peacefully colonize the cold, inhospitable regions of Iceland and Greenland, as well as the more genial but circumscribed regions of 25 36 GREENLAND AND ICELAND COLONIZED. the Faroe, Shetland, and Orkney Islands. It was an age when the neces- sities of a surplus population appealed to the law of the strongest. Our more civilized methods of piracy do not so harrow human sensibilities, but the law of " might gives right," may still be traced by any one given to reflection. At first the marauders paid only flying and stealthy visits to unpro- tected coasts; but afterward, emboldened by success, and strengthened by the accessions which the fame of their exploits and the resulting harvests of booty brought to their support, they made deeper inroads; and finally effected permanent lodgments in Russia, England, Ireland and France. In Russia they were known as Varangians, that is, " sea- warriors," who gave a king and dynasty, Rurik and his successors, to that country. In England and Ireland they were known as Danes; and in France as Normans, where they became possessors of Normandy, whence too, under their Duke William, their descendants invaded and conquered England in 1066. Their first permanent settlements in the Faroe, Shetland, and Orkney Islands are supposed to have been made about the middle of the ninth century. In Iceland the date is more authentic, being placed by the best authorities in A. D. 874. The accidental discovery of Greenland fol- lowed two years later, but no effort at colonization seems to have been made until 985, two years after its re-discovery by Eric the Red. Ice- land became self-governing in 928, and remained independent until 1387, when it submitted to the king of Denmark and Norway. Greenland "prospered" for several centuries, receiving its first bishop in 1121, and its last one in 1406. The population was decimated by the " black death " and that of Iceland, also and it could no longer support the expensive luxury of a bishop. With the bishop, in 1409, doubtless went the annalist of the colony, as there is no further record of Greenland for nearly two hundred years. The truth probably is that as only the pres- sure of over population at home could have reconciled them to an abode in dreary Greenland and frozen Iceland, so when that was removed by the "black death," which swept off 25,000,000 of the population of Europe in three years (1348-51), there were no new accessions, and the INCIDENTAL DISCOVERT OF NORTH AMERICA. 37 more enterprising and active of the survivors in both colonies may have found more congenial homes among their kindred in Europe. Besides these authentic voyages of the Norsemen to Greenland and Iceland, there are some alleged voyages to the latter made by more southern navigators. There is a story of the Zeni brothers, of Venice, who are said to have explored those Northern seas, and to have discov- ered certain northern islands, one of which is conjectured to have been Iceland. And it is even possible that Columbus himself visited those latitudes fifteen years before his great discovery; for in one of his letters is found this statement: " In 1477 I navigated one hundred leagues beyond Thule." A favorite identification of the Thule of Pytheas of Marseilles has been with Iceland; but it is thought that mediaeval writers may have rather inclined to identify it with the largest of the Shetland Islands. An incidental result of the discovery and colonization of Iceland and Greenland referred to above, was the discovery of the continent of North America, and some of the smaller islands along the coast, although, as is well known, this fact led to no very permanent results. Biarne Herjulfson is said, by tradition, to have sailed from Iceland for Green- land, in 986 A. D., but on account of fogs and north winds, lost his course and came upon the coast of a strange land, which he sighted at different times in a northern direction. It is thought that he came upon the Atlantic coast of North America, perhaps at Newfoundland or Labrador, and sailed along it until he arrived at the colony of Eric. He did not land, however, until Greenland was reached. . In the year 1000 this discovery was repeated by a son of Eric the Red, who, with thirty-five men, explored the coast of North America for a long distance from north to south. After landing at a spot sup- posed to have been Labrador, he sailed to the south, and discovered a pleasant country, which was called Vinland, from the abundance of grapes found upon it. Here they spent the winter, and two years later Thorwald, another son of Eric, visited the place and discovered Cape Cod. After this Vinland was quite extensively colonized from Green- land and was variously visited by Norse voyagers. The colony was 28 SUPPOSED RELICS OF THE NORSEMEN. supported for a few years, but owing to the fierce attacks of the natives, the enterprise was finally abandoned. A son born to Karlsefne, the head of the Vinland colony, was the first child born to European parents on guished families of STONB TOWER, AT' NEWPORT. old stone tower at Newport, Rhode Island, and the inscription upon Dighton Rock, which lies upon the bank of Taunton River, are memorials of the visits of these Northmen. Such a beginning, then, had the series of adventures to whose de- scription this volume is devoted adventures which, made in the cause of science, and requiring the highest degree of manly courage, must thi'ill all with their dangerous and desperate character. CHAPTER II. PORTUGUESE AND SPANISH DISCOVERIES PORTUGUESE VOYAGES TO NORTH AMERICA VORACITY OF THE SPANISH RESULTS OF COLUMBUS' DISCOVERY VOYAGES OF THE CABOTS FIRST VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD VOYAGE TO LA PLATA FRENCH VOYAGES. The gradual way in which the maritime enterprise of the Portuguese led them to the discovery of the ocean route to the East Indies, marks the distinctive character of their voyages. The final result was the slow, deliberate and laborious outcome of several previous adventures carried on in a systematic manner. To Prince Henry, surnamed the navigator, because of his patronage of these enterprises, Portugal was largely in- debted for her early naval supremacy among modern nations. Madeira was discovered in 1420; Cape Bojador was passed in 1439; and Cape Verd in 1446. The Azores were discovered in 1448 ; the Cape Verd Islands in 1449, and St. Thomas in 1471. In 1481 the Pope granted to the crown of Portugal all the countries which the Portuguese might discover beyond Cape Bojador. In 1486 Bartholomew Diaz, while on an expedition to explore the west coast of Africa, was driven by high winds to the mouth of the Great Fish River, actually, but un- consciously, doubling the most southern point of Africa. On his return, in 1487, he named the headland Cape Tarmentoso. In 1497 Vasco da Gama doubled Cape Tarmentoso, which he named the Cape of Good Hope, and in 1498 arrived in India. By this discovery of an ocean route to India, the trade of the East was diverted from the old channel of the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, and the commerce of the world was revolutionized. Early in 1500 Pedro Alvarez de Cabral, on a voyage to the East Indies by the way of the Cape of Good Hope, fell in with the land now 29 30 COR TEREALCOL UMB US. known as Brazil, and promptly took possession of the same for the crown of Portugal. Two Portuguese voyages to North America, under Gaspar Cortereal, in 150x3 and 1501, left no memorable incidents, except his cruel kidnapping of natives on the first, and his own disappearance on the second. A third voyage, in 1502, under Miguel Cortereal in search of his brother Gaspar, resulted in a similar disappearance; and Portugal never gained a foothold in North America. The success of Da Gama and Cabral had found a more profitable outlet for Portuguese commerce and colonization, and their various enterprises in South America, West and South Africa, and the adjacent islands, as well as in the East Indies, afforded ample scope for all the surplus energies of prince and people. Before dismissing Portugal from the field of observation, we would re- mind the reader of the well known voyage of Magellan, a Portuguese in the service of Spain, in 1520, and the discovery of the straits called by his name a southwest passage to India, or rather to the islands of the Pacific and to Australia. SPANISH VOYAGES. The greatest and most wide-reaching in influence of all the voyages of discovery, was that of Columbus, in 1492, in search of a western pas- sage to India. His great discovery was not like so many of the preced- ing ones, an accidental happening or a lucky hit, nor the direct conse- quence of other explorations immediately preceding, as was Da Gama's ; but the result of an intellectual conception carefully elaborated and found- ed on geographical data. Any number of discoveries by storm-driven Norsemen or cod-fishing Bretons, or adventurous Welshmen were the facts established beyond all doubt could not rob Columbus of the pecu- liar glory of his great achievement. By birth a Genoese, but failing of proper encouragement at home and in other countries to which he had submitted his projects, Columbus, then in the service of Spain, sailed from the port of Palos to find a western passage to India, and in ten weeks came in sight of land. The now old and familiar story will not be repeated here, as only its influence and bearings upon later voyages farther north, come within COLUMBUS FIRST SIGHT OF LAND SPANISH EXPLORATION OF NORTH AMERICA. the scope of our work. He died fourteen years later, in poverty and neglect, after four voyages to the New World, still under the impres- sion that he had reached some portion of India by a western route. Within fifty years of his discovery, the geographical knowledge in the possession of mankind was doubled ; and the foundations of modern accuracy and fullness in that regard were deeply laid. PORTUGUESE AND SPANISH EXPLORERS. Spanish navigators in great numbers followed in the wake of Colum- bus, some originally his subordinates and asso- ciates, others not spec- ially connected. When the way is opened by genius, talent is ever ready to step in and gather results. Ojeda, Vespucius, Pinzon, Bastides, Balboa, Grijalva, De Solis, De Leon, De Cordova, Cortes, De Ayllon, Pizarro, Almagro, and many others, increased the area of Spanish ex- ploration and conquest in America, and, it might be said, added to the infamy of their cruel oppression and heartless enslavement and depopu- lation of the native races, in Central and South America, in Mexico and the West Indies. The Spanish exploration of North America by Gomez, in 1524, led to important results, but was signalized by the cus- tomary Spanish barbarity to the natives, several of whom were kid- napped and sold into slavery, making the venture commercially profit- able, but morally infamous. And so it hath ever been " Regard of worldly muck doth foully blend And low abase the high, heroic spirit. " CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 34 RAP AC IT T OF SPAIN. The wealth which Spain wrenched with heavy hand from the luck- less natives who fell under her sway, was lavished in wasteful luxury and expensive wars. Like others, her growth would have been more solid and her prosperity more enduring had she been content with fair returns from her American possessions. But her voracious greed and atrocious cruelty plucked out the eyes of the New World and her own. Mexico and Peru were extinguished, their civilization destroyed, and their wealth confiscated by the unwise, as well as cruel, policy of her conquerors. Liberty and justice are the two pillars of national prosperity which no violence of brute force can pull down, and which alone can defy the assaults of internal and external foes. After nearly four hundred years of mistaken policy, a new generation of nobler sons have begun to guide the ship of state on wiser principles. After the discovery of America by Columbus, and the recognition that the land surface of the globe had been considerably enlarged by a long stretch of territory, the width of which, however, was not ascertained till long afterward, the search for a passage through it to the Indies was not relinquished. In 1513 Balboa had found the "South Sea," now the Pacific Ocean, and after having with immense labor, patience, and perse- verance, built some vessels on the Gulf of Panama " an enterprise no leader save he could have carried to a successful issue " he cruised on its waters beyond St. Michaels. But his premature death at the hands of his rival Davila, of Darien, in 1517, deprived him of the opportunity of further exploration. The reports sent by Balboa to Spain in relation to the great wealth of the regions south of Panama inflamed the zeal and avarice of the Spaniards, and man v expeditions were organized with a view to exploration and conquest. In their search for gold they enlarged the area of geographical knowledge, but their destruction of the civiliza- tions of Mexico and Peru has robbed humanity of an inheritance for which that is no recompense. That would eventually have been reached without their aid, but the loss referred to can never be repaired. One of the first results of Columbus' discovery of the New World was the re-discovery of North America. The English " Society of Merchant Adventurers," was established in 1358 under the name of "The CABOT DISCOVERS NORTH AMERICA. 85 Thomas a, Becket Society," and the whole body of English traders were eager to share in the commerce of India, China and the East generally. The Pope had early granted, almost as soon as the discovery was fully authenticated, a sort of monopoly of the advantages of the Eastern dis- coveries to the Portuguese, and of the Western to the Spaniards. By a bull of 1493 the meridian of 100 leagues west of the Azores was estab- lished as a line of demarcation between the two powers. By the treaty of Tordesillas, in 1494, and a confirmatory bull in 1506, the line was ex- tended to the coast of Brazil, or 375 leagues from the Azores. The adjoining country inland, extent unknown, was understood to follow the fortunes of the coast. The method of division was unscientific and un- fortunate, but as far as other nations were concerned it was supposed to cut them off from all share in the great discoveries of the period. The English were determined to find, if possible, a solution which, while it would not formally antagonize the high authority of the Pope at that time an accepted and important element in international law would let them into a substantial share of the results. This was the origin of the celebrated theory of a Northwest Passage to India and Cathay, or China, which will be more fully treated in a succeeding chapter. In pursuance of this theory the Cabots, John and Sebastian father and son sailed with three vessels, in 1497, from Bristol, then the lead- ing commercial port of England. They virtually discovered North America, as it is not known that the discovery of the same region some 500 years before, had any influence on their course or its results. As nearly as can be now determined, the region actually discovered, and which they loosely designated by the name of " The Land First Seen," was Labrador. Though not signalized by large immediate results, and in a commercial sense unprofitable, this voyage was one of the most mo- mentous in the history of the world. It was the corner-stone of Eng- land's colonial system and indirectly of the greater glories of the American Union, with its incalculable contributions to the elevation and progress of mankind. Our minds cannot grasp the immensity of these results, but the effort to seize the dim outlines of the mighty fabric will amply repay. SEBASTIAN CABOT. 86 SECOND VOTAGE OF CABOT. 37 In a second voyage, about a year later, Sebastian Cabot, in command of two vessels and 300 men, explored the coast from Labrador to Chesa- peake Bay, perhaps to Florida. He named Newfoundland and noted the great numbers of codfish to be found -on its banks a discovery, however, in which he had been anticipated, it is thought, by the fisher- men of France. He reached latitude 58, and perhaps higher, but en- countered so much floating ice, though it was in the month of July, that he concluded to return to England. Nothing more is heard of Sebastian Cabot until 1512, when he entered the service of Spain, where he re- mained until the death of his patron, Ferdinand V., in i$i6. Soon afterward he is again found in the service of England, being given the command of an expedition to Labrador, in 1517, by Henry VIII. To the cowardice or malice of an associate, Sir Thomas Perte, is usually attributed Cabot's failure in this third voyage to North America. But it can hardly be just to attribute it to such a cause. Complete success was impossible at that early stage step by step man progresses. He explored what is now Hudson's Bay, ascending to 67 30', and naming several pi aces. Dissatisfied with the result, or influenced perhaps by the dissatisfaction of his principal, Cardinal Wolsey, who was at that time emphatically " the power behind the throne, " and far more interested in finding a passage for himself to the papacy than in promoting the efforts of the merchants of London to discover a route to India, or for some cause not clearly ascertained, Cabot left England and re-entered the service of Spain. The unexampled prestige of its young king Carlos, elected emperor under the historic name of Karl or Charles V., in 1519, may have inspired Cabot with the hope of securing in that pow- erful quarter the necessary patronage for his cherished project, the Northeast Passage. It is said that he had secured a favorable hearing from the late king for that fantastic dream, but in England the North- west Passage was still in the ascendant. He was appointed pilot-rruijor of Spain, and was for some years engaged in quietly discharging the duties of that office, for which his exact knowledge of detail and large experience in naval matters from his boyhood, specially qualified him. With Cabot we turn again to Spain and its maritime enterprises. 38 VOYAGE OF MAGELLAN. FIRST VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. Fernando Magalhaens or Magellan (1470-1521), a Portuguese nav- igator, had attained some distinction in the service of his country in the East Indies, and had taken part in the conquest of Malacca in 1511. While serving under Albuquerque he had made a voyage to the Mo- luccas or Spice Islands, which he afterward learned were within the jurisdiction of Spain as established by papal adjudication and the treaty of Tordesillas. In 1517 he opened his project of finding a West passage to the Moluccas, to Charles V, of Spain, and an agreement was entered into, March 22, 1518, whereby the King was to defray the expenses, and receive the lion's share of such commercial advantages as should accrue. Magellan received command of five vessels and 237 men for the expedition, and having finally got all things in readiness, he sailed for the New World in 1519. The expedition had to struggle against bad weather, insubordination and mishaps of various kinds, the details of which would be foreign to this stage of our narrative. Ma- gellan discovered and traversed the Strait called by his name in 1520 ; and was killed in battle with the natives of one of the Philippine Islands, in 1521. His subordinate, Sebastian del Cano, completed the voyage, reaching Spain Sept. 6, 1522, lacking fourteen days of three years since the departure of Magellan. CABOT'S VOYAGE TO LA PLATA. Cabot conceived the project of reaching Peru by a more direct route than that discovered by Balboa from Panama, or by Magellan through the Straits which are called by his name. He secured the command of an expedition to explore the La Plata, in 1526, and search for a South- west Passage to the South Sea or Pacific Ocean, and thence to the East. In 1527 he ascended the La Plata 120 leagues, and discovered Para- guay. He was feebly sustained by the home government, and returned to Spain in 1531. As with the cardinal in England, so with the emper- or in Spain, the pre-occupation of more congenial pursuits dwarfed the interest in maritime exploration, and Cabot concluded to again try Eng- land," whither he went, in 1548. He perhaps hoped to be able to in- FRENCH VOTAGERS. 39 terest the vigorous and enterprising Duke of Somerset, protector of England, in his now favorite project. He was created inspector of the navy, and instructor of the young King Edward VI. in the nautical science of the day, where we will leave him, while we call atten- tion to another branch of our subject. FRENCH VOYAGES TO NORTH AMERICA. During the fifty years succeeding the discovery of America by Co- lumbus, Cabot, and Vespucius, France was too deeply involved in Euro- pean wars to give much attention to maritime discovery. Louis XII. (1498-1515), Francis I. (1515-47) and Henry II. (1547-59), successive- ly struggled with coast of North Amer- Austria for the pos- djJJJliiilJjfciL. * ca ' After the peace session of Lombardy. jjjjji mSJjgf&Sp' o f Cambray, Francis The defeat of Francis ^Hp M ^ failing to find, as he at Pavia, in 1525, by ^EiBi'.^ P^\ said, any clause in throwing the nation ^^^^-T^*^^^fopw' Adam's will disin- into financial and po- ;^^^^^bv-^flBMBl^^^ heriting France in litical disorder, put an /^^^^^H^S^^^^^- favor of Spain and end to Verrazzano's - Portugal renewed otherwise successful ^*^o^