224
1586.
Trades withthe Natives.
Finds anOpen Sea ,which he be-lieves to bethe Pajfage.
Some of hisMen attack-ed by theNatives.
Elizu
Naval Expeditions, &c. of the English,
and Greenland, to the Latitude of eightyDegrees, if Land did not hinder them.
The nine and twentieth, he [came toLand in sixty-four Degrees Latitude,andin Longitude, from the Meridian ofLondon, eight and fifty Degrees, thirtyMinutes, and went afhoar on an Island,where he traded very friendly with theNatives, for Seals, Stags, and whiteHares Skins, dried Fist, and iomeFowl.
In one of these Islands, they set up aPinnace, and while they were at Work,the Inhabitants came to them frequently,tn great Numbers, sometimes with fortyor fifty, and sometimes with a HundredCanoes. They knew the Men again,who had been there the Year before,and exprefs’d a great Satisfaction at theSight of them. Davis divided his Boats,and sent them different Ways, into se-veral Sounds and Bays; And they fre-quently landed, and went up to the Topof the highest Mountains they couldfind; But could discover nothing to theirPurpose.
Here Davis continued some Days,trading with the Natives, whom hefound very thievish ; And, at his De-parture, he brought away one of themwith him ; But he died.
He run into sixty-six Degrees andtwenty Minutes Latitude.
Some Authors fay, that entring thisYear again,into the sameStreight, whichhe had been in the Year before, he failedeighty Leagues in it, and got some far-ther Knowledge of the Seas of thoseParts. He found them every Way fullof scattering Islands, and stock’d withPlenty of Filh. He then coasted South-ward again, to six and fifty Degrees,where he continued in a good Harbour,till September, and failing thence, infour and fifty Degrees, on the fourth ofSeptember, found an open Sea tendingWestward, which he hoped might bethe Passage so Jong sought for. TheSouth-Land they believed to be nothingbut Isles, and they greatly coveted togo into this Sea y But the Wind beingthen directly against them, they came toAnchor in four Fathom, and foundgreat Store ot Fist.
The sixth, having a fair - North-North-West Wind, they prepared to de-part, and sent a Boat with five Men tofetch some Fist, which : they had leftupon the Shoar; But they were unex-pectedly set upon by the Inhabitants,who killed two of them, dangerously
wounded other two, and the fifth was 1586*obliged to lwim on Board, with an Ar-row shot thro' his Arm, A violentStorm ensued, which detained themthere 'till the eleventh ; And then, theWind being fair West-North-West,theydeparted, and, directing their Coursefor England, arrived in the Welt-Coun -pffj fA'try, the Beginning of Ociober. This isto be understood of the Moonshine ForI find no Mention made of the Mermaidafter Davis left her at Anchor the twelfthof Augufl.
•s A
Other Circumstances of this Voyage,which differ little or nothing from thoseof the former, I omit, for Brevity’sfake; As I do, likewise, for the sameReason, those of the Sun Jhine, and thePinnace ; Observing, only, that on thethird of September, the latter was sepa-rated from the former, in a Storm, andnever seen more, and that the Sun-Jhinearrived at Dartmouth, the fourth of Offo-ber, having only brought a small Parcelof Seal-Skins, for her Cargo.
In a Letter written by Mr. Davis, Davis' ^ft om Exeter, to Mr. William Sounder son,quickly after his Return, of which we ahave a Copy in Hackluyt ; He tells him;
" that he had now gained much Expe-ls rience of the North-West Part of the" World; And had brought the Pas-" sage to that Likely hood, that he was“ assured it must be in one of fourcc Places, or else not at all. He assures" him farther, upon the Forfeiture of“ his Life, , that the Voyage may be“ performed, not only without farther" Charge, but with certain Profit to" the Adventurers.
Da vis’s third Voyage. _
On the nineteenth of May, i^8y.
Mr. John Davis set Sail, with three iff.small Vessels, the Elizabeth of Dart-mouth, and the Sun-Jhine and Helen , ofLondon, on his third Voyage - Two ofthese Vessels were designed for Fisting,and the third for the Discovery of aNorth-West Passage : And it was "by theFisting, I suppose, Davis had assuredhis Adventurers of a certain Profit.
T h e eighteenth of June, he came toan Anchor, on the Northern Coast ofAmerica,- and the twentieth was in sixty;seven Degrees and forty Minutes Lathtude, an open Sea ; And then, steer-ing Westward, run forty Leagues, where
meeting with much Ice, and the NorthWind driving him from his intendedNortherly Course, he was forced to seekthe open Sea anain. The