BOOKS.

RUNDALL'S EARLY VOYAGES POE THE DISCOVERY OF THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE.* THE object of this new volume of the Hakluyt Society is to give a full though succinct account of the voyages undertaken by our early naviga- tors in search of a passage to Cathay or India by the North Polar Sea ; to set forth the patience, perseverance, and skill of those daring mariners ; and to defend some of them from an attack that has latterly been made upon their merits and claims. With this end, Mr. Thomas Randall, the editor of the volume, has explored the manuscript repositories at the British Museum and the India House ; and has been enabled, by his own exertions and the assistance of friends, to make considerable additions to what was already known. Passages omitted by Hakluyt and Purchas have been restored ; entire documents relating to Baffin, of which Por- ches made no use, have been published for the first time; and his me- mory has been very successfully vindicated from the attack of the late Sir John Barrow, who not only proposed to expunge, but in his own book actually did expunge, " Baffin's Bay" from the map. Mr. Rundall has added some new voyages;; enriched the narratives by curious nautical and statistical particulars, throwing light upon the seamanship, marine economy, and prices of the Elizabethan and Stuart epochs; and illustrated the old expeditions by quotations from modern voyagers, confirming the accuracy and the exertions of their predecessors. Indeed, when the map of North Polar discoveries up to 1631, prefixed to Mr. Rundall's volume, is compared with a map of the latest date, one is surprised to see how little faith and a zealous sense of duty left for science to accomplish with all appliances and means to boot. When Baffin in 1606 reached the end of the bay which bears his name, he penetrated as far to the Northward as seems possible for vessels in those Polar regions. If, repulsed by ice and misled by appearances, he pro- nounced an erroneous opinion upon Lancaster Sound, Sir John Ross came to the same conclusion as to the absence of a passage; though' Parry afterwards, in 1819, discovered a way, and the direct one, as seems now proved, into the Northern Arctic Ocean. The quaint old navi- gator Fox, , in 1631, advanced within three degrees of the strait of the Fury and Hecla, amid the difficult navigation of Hudson's Bay, South- ampton Island, and Prince Williams Land ; but it took several succes- sive explorations to connect this passage with the Arctic Ocean, through the Gulf of Boothia and Prince Regent's Inlet. In fact, the discovery of the North-west Passage, or, practically speaking, the geography of the region, was only completed by degrees and as the Hudson's Bay Com- pany extended their posts. Without these as a base of operations, and the combination of laud and sea expeditions by means of boats, the Arctic Ocean could never hive been explored, or the coast surveyed from Icy Cape to Lancaster Sound : so, after all, the Company did something to- wards fulfilling one condition of their charter, though they were nearly two centuries about it.

The popular attraction of this volume is probably not so great as that of its predecessors. The old navigators were more eminent in deeds than words, and except in circumstances of great difficulty and danger their narrative is rather bald. Even then the effect of their heroism is injured through their want of elocution. They hear themselves as men in "suffering all that suffer nothing" ; and the imagination, informed from other sources, must often supply what their words fail to furnish. The greater part of the interest of the volume is historical, or curious. The historical interest lies in its complete view of voyages undertaken in ap- parent defiance of the powers of Nature, and for a purpose whose utility ceased when the advance of geographical knowledge and the improve- ments of mechanical navigation rendered the enterprise possible; since, even if the North-west passage were so open as to be practicable for corn- .mercial purposes, time would not now be saved or danger avoided by avoiding the voyage round the Cape. The curious interest is in the glimpses given of the manners of the times, the light thrown upon naval liminess and discipline, and the statistics Of price in respect to ships and stores.

There are scattered passages in the volume of great interest, and the adventure of Captain James in 1631-32 is interesting throughout ; not as a voyage, but for the terrible sufferings of the company, and the manly uncomplaining spirit with which they were borne. The expedition was fitted oat by some merchants of Bristol, iu a vessel not qualified for the service, and not very well provided for such a voyage. Fox, who fell in with and dined on board of this vessel in Hudson's Bay, was so incom- moded by the water thrown in, that he quaintly observes, " sauce would not have been wanted if there had been roast mutton" ; and doubts " whether it were better for James his company to be impounded amongst ice, where they might be kept from putrefaction by piercing ayre, or in open sea, to be kept sweet by being thus daily pickled." He describes James pretty much in the terms of lago delineating Cassio—as .proving himself by his conversation to be "a practitioner in the mathe- matics, but no seaman." There appears to have been some truth in this -criticism ; for, by systematically hugging the shore, James was entangled in the ice, and his vessel received damage, while by ill luck or bad management she struck several times on sunken rocks. At length, what with the lateness of the season, the state of the ship, and the position where she was at the Southern extremity of Hudson's Bay, it was re- 'solved to beach the vessel, and winter on an island. And now the courage, patience, and piety of the captain, were conspicuous. He might not be equal in seamanship to some of his distinguished predecessors, but .410 seaman could have better guarded against the coming winter, with the means at his disposal, (for part of his stores were in the ship and' could -)"• IP Narratives of Voyages towards the North-west in Search of a Passage to Cathay .14in44ildia: 1406 to isal. with Selections from the. Early Records of the Honourable

the East India Company, and from 5155. In the British Museum. By Thomas Itundall, Esq. Printed for the Hakluyt Society.

not be got at,) and he was manfully seconded by his crew. They built wooden houses; and, though ill-protected against the weather, struggled through nine months, from October to July, in a manner worthy of all honour. The cold he thus describes.

"Since now I have spoken so much of the cold, I hope it will not be taken ill, if I in a few words make it some way appear to our readers. We make three differences of the cold, all according to the places: in our house, in the woods, and in the open air in our going to the ship. For the last, it would be sometimes se extreme, that it was almost unindarable; no cloaths were proof against it, no mo. tion could resist it; it would so freeze the hair on the eyelids, that we could not see; and I verily believe that it would have stifled a man in a very few hours. We daily found by experience that the cold in the woods would freeze our feces, or any part of our flesh that was bare; but it was not so mortifying as the other. Our house, on the outside, was covered two-third parts with snow; and on the inside, frozen and hang with icicles. The eloaths on our beds would be covered with hoar-frost; which in this habitation was not far from the fire. The cook's tubs, wherein be watered his meat, standing about a yard from the fire, and which he all day long.plied with snow water; yet, in the night season, whilst he steeped but on watch, they would be firm frozen to the very bottom. And therefore be was forced to water his meat in a brass kettle, close adjoining to the fire. And I have many times both seen and felt, by patting my hand into it, that side which was next the fire very warm, and the other side an inch frozen. The chirurgenn, who had hung his bottles of sirrups, and other liquid things, as conveniently as he could to preserve them, had them all frozen. Our vinegar, oil, and sack, which we had in small casks in the house, were all firm frozen." -

The account of the state to which a part of the crew was reduced to- wards the spring by the scurvy, may vie with any picture of that once terrible disease.

"Many of our men complained of infirmities: some of sore mouths, all the teeth in their heads being loose, their gums swoln with black rotten flesh, which every day was to be cut away; the pain was so great that they could not eat their ordinary meat. Others complained of pains in their heads and their breasts ; some, of weakness in their backs; others, of aches in their thighs and were knees; and others, of swellings in their legs. Thus we two-thirds of the core. pany under the chimrgeon's hands; and yet nevertheless they were forced to work daily, and go abroad to fetch wood and timber, notwithstanding most of them had no shoes to put on. Their shoes, upon their coming to the fire out of the snow, were burnt and scorched upon their feet; and our store-shoes were all sunk in the ship. In this necessity, they made this shift, to bind clouts about their feet; and

endeavoured by that poor help the best they could to perform their duties." •

" We had three sorts of sick men: those that could not move, nor turn them- selves in their beds, who must be tended like infants; others were, as it were, crippled with aches; and others, that were something better. Most had sore mouths. You may now ask me, how these infirm men could work? I will tell you. Our surgeon, who was a diligent and sweet-conditioned man as ever I saw, would be up betimes in the morning; and whilst he picked their teeth, and cut away the pieces of flesh from their gums, they would bathe their thighs, knees, and legs. The manner of it was thus: there was no tree, bud, or herb, but we made trial of it; and this being first boiled in a kettle, and then put in a small tub and basons, they put it under them, and covered them with cloths,upon This so molified the grieved parts, that though, when they rose ont of their bedd, they would be so crippled that they could scarce stand, yet after this was done half an hour, they would be able to go (and go they must) to wade through the snow to the ship, and about other business. By night they would be as bad again; and then they must be bathed, anointed, and their mouths dressed again, before they went to bed ; and in this diet, and in this manner, we went through our miseries. I was always afraid that we should be weakest in the spring, and therefore I reserved a tun of Alicant wine unto this time. Of this, by patting seven parts of water to one of wine, we made some weak beverage; which, by reason that the wine had been froze and lost its virtue, was little better than water. The sicker sort had a pint of Alicant a day, by itself; and of such poor aqua vitro too as we had, they had a dram allowed them next their hearts every morning. And thus we made the best use of what we had, according to the seasons."

Some did die ; but the remainder were saved by vetches, when the weather grew sufficiently mild to bring forth the scanty vegetation of that region, though not to break up the ice. This breaking-up did not take place till the latter end of June; by which time they had repaired, launched, and rigged their vessel, and gut all ready for their departure. There is something touching in the quiet and primitive manner in which

they spent their last day, apparently a Sunday. .

"July. The 1st of this month we were up betimes, and I caused our ship to be adorned the best we could : our flag in the poop, and the King's colours in the main-top. I had provided a short account of all the passages of our voyage to this day. I likewise wrote in what state we were in at present, and how I in- tended to prosecute this discovery both to the Westward and to the Southward, about this island. This brief discourse I had concluded with a request to any noble-minded traveller that should take it down, or come to the notice of it, that, if we should perish in the action, then to make our endeavours known to our Sovereign Lord the King. And thus, with our arms, drums, and colours, COE& and kettle, we went ashore; and first we marched up to our eminent cross, ad- joining to which we had buried our dead fellows. There we read morning prayers, and then walked np and down till dinner-time. After dinner we walked up to the highest hills, to see which way the fire had wasted: we descried that it bad consumed to the Westward sixteen miles at least, and the whole breadth of the island. Near our cross and dead it could not come, by reason it was a bare sand. After evening prayer, I happened to walk along the beach-side; where I found an herb resembling scurvy grass: I bad some gathered, which we boiled with our meat for supper. It was most excellent good, and far better than our vetches. After i supper we went to seek for more of it; which we carried off to the quantity of two bushels; which did afterwards much refresh us. And now the sun was set, and the boat came ashore for us; whereupon we assembled ourselves and went up to take the last view of our dead, and to look to their tombs, and other things. So fastening my brief, which was securely wrapped up in lead, to the cross, we presently took boat and departed, and never put foot more on that island."

A topic which the book will suggest, is the superiority of the English character generally under Elizabeth and the first Stuarts, to what it was between the Restoration and George the Third, or rather, till the Arne'

together,

rican and French Revolutions startled the world and broke up old no- tions and stagnant ideas. Something perhaps should be allowed' for the superior class from whom seamen or the, followers of any craft were taken in those days ; for villeinage had 'not been long enough extinct to remove the prejudices connected with common labour, or to overturn the pride men felt in their guilds or companies : still we are inclined to attri- bute a good deal to character. Bad subjects might be found, such to those who exposed Hudson ant a few followers in the bay that bears his name; but these were individuals—criminals whom every age produccg. Tlie commanders and jthe majority of- the men exhibited as much right dealing with the savages they fell in with as is customary with public expeditions in our day. Discipline appears to have been as strictly, ob- served as now, though with more of patriarchal familiarity of manner. Of their patience under misery, the quotations from James furnish an example; of their skill and courage, the panegyrics of our latest naviga- tors are striking evidence; of their spirit of enterprise, the smallness of many of their vessels is a sufficient proof. Frobisher embarked on his first voyage with two barks of "between twenty and twenty-five tonne a piece," and a pinnace of ten tons and four bands. In his first voyage Davis bad a vessel of fifty and another of thirty-five tons; Hudson's was fitly-five tons, and Baffin's four voyages were made in the "good shipp called the Discouverare (Discovery) beinge of the burthen of 55 tonn, or theare aboute." Those who from Pepys, Smollett, and other sources, know the corrupt state of the Royal Navy from Charles the Second to George the Second, if not into the reign of George the Third, will be sur- prised at the careful preparation, selection of officers and men, and the order, regularity, and good Conduct, that generally characterized these private expeditions. The most surprising feature of the whole, however, is the state of health. The ravages of scurvy and other diseases, until Cook introduced the hygienic system into the naval service, are well known : corrupt air and corrupt provisions swept away half and some- times whole crews. Loss of life took place in these Arctic voyages, but generally from accident rather than sickness, except upon such occasions as that of James's wintering. The health of the companies throughout appears to have been better than could have been expected. Davis, in his third expedition, by " God's great mercy made [his] safe retunm in health with all the company " ; and Baffin, returning from his last voy- age, could say the same. "We had sight of Cape Cleere in Ireland the sixt of September. The next nominee by daylight we were faire by Silly; and that night, at two a clocks the next mores, we'came to anchor in Plymouth Sound, without the loss of one man. For these and all other blessings the Lord make vs thankfall."