Voyages in Search of The North-West Passage

st for the search of the passage or strait to China, writte

l was launched at Redriffe, and upon the twenty-seven

Ratcliffe, and bare down to Deptford, and there we anchored. The cause was, that our pinnace burst her bowsprit and f

e best show we could; her Majesty beholding the same commended it, and bade us farewell with shaking her hand at us out of the window. Afterwards she sent a gentleman aboard o

to the company that her Majesty had appointed him to give them charge to be obedient,

r anchors aboard ready to set sail to depart, we wanted some

d by west sun, the wind being at north-north-west, and sailed to Gravese

on of the compass is 11 degrees and a half. This day we departed from Gravesend at a west-south-west sun, the wind at north and by east a fair gale, and sailed to t

showing the navigation until the 28th of July, wh

, and sounded, but could get no land at 100 fathoms, and the ice being so thick I could not get to the shore, and so lay off and came clear of the ice. Upon Monday we came within a mile of the shore, and sought a harbour; all the sound was full of ice, and our boat rowing ashore could get no ground at 100 fathom, within a cab

from us north and by east, and we sailed north-east and by north to that land, and when we came thither we could no

e stones, and after that sounded again within a minion's shot, and had ground at 100 fathoms, and fair sand. We sounded the next day a quarter of a mile from it, and had 60 fathoms rough ground, and at that present being aboard, that great island o

uth-south-east ofward

calm and thick,

two leagues, and at 8 of the clock in t

st into the shore to get a harbour, and being

the shore, but being near it it w

bended in toward

could get no ground at 130 f

and it floweth as near as I could judge so too. I could not tarry to prove it, because the ship was a great way from me, and I feared a fog; but when

e to be 63 degrees and 8 minutes,

island called the Gabriel's Island,

and bearing east-south-east of us, and there we rode all night in 8 fathom water. It floweth th

ed in 8 fathoms water, fair sand, and black ooze, and there caulked o

d, and sailed to Prior's Ba

presently within two hours it was frozen round about the ship

weighed, and came to

ored again in 23 fathoms, and caught ooze under Birche

ught one of their boats with their men along the shore, rowing after our boat, till such time as they saw our ship, and then they rowed ashore. Then I went on shore myself, and gave every of them a threaden point, and brought one of them aboard of me, where he did eat and drink, and then carried him on shore again. Whereupon all the rest came aboard with their boats, being nineteen persons, and they spake, but we understood them not. They b

reupon we plied to our boat; and we being in our boat and they ashore, they called to us, and we rowed to them, and one of their company came into our boat, and we carried him aboard, and gave him a bell and a knife; so t

could hear nothing of our men. This sound we called the Five Men's Sound, and plied out of it, but anchored agai

ats, and some came near to us, but we could learn nothing of our men. Among the rest, we enticed one in a boat to our ship's side with a bell; a

homeward, and by twelve of the clock at

and, and at eight of the clock at night we h

day we went our

ast and by east,

us, but we could not come nearer it for the monstrous ice that lay about it. From this day till the sixth of

e of our men was blown into the sea out of our waste, but he caught hold of the

h we had sight of the island of O

d, and so sailed along the coast, and anchored at

f the People of Me