JOHN DAVIS THE NAVIGATOR.*
" GREAT Explorers," by land and sea, are to have their
" series " of handy volumes like everybody else ; and we do not know that the set of geographical books could have begun better than it has with a Life of John Davis from the thoroughly competent pen of Mr. Clements Markham. Some notion of geography is necessary even to the " gentlemen of lazy literature," and still more so to those who study with an object. The young folks cannot be taught too early to keep their maps open beside them when they read, even if they do not ground themselves in a science never more important, not to say essential, than it is now. How much history and biography is forgotten because the eager learner would not stop to track the course of events and men upon the map ! To link the personal adventures of the discoverer with accurate accounts and maps of his discoveries, is one of the surest ways of fixing the attention and giving a more or less solid basis to the random readings, as well as the regular studies of the young—or the old. The " series " now begun should, at all events, operate as a stimulant to the acquisition of knowledge in the boundless field of geography, where the hoary scholar, even, incessantly finds more worlds to conquer.
Naturally, the centre of interest in Mr. Markham's book is not the famous discoveries on the borders of the icy North- West three hundred years ago, but the character and qualities of John Davis, who made them. The Straits into which he carried his ships are familiarly known by his name, while only the studious in Arctic or seafaring lore know anything of the man who bore it. A few names, indeed, left high above the flood of oblivion, represent on our maps whole generations of vanished heroic seamen, not of one race or nation, nor of one age, but of many races, nations, and ages. John Davis is one of the few. He came into the world after the dawn, he flourished in the sunrise, of modern Arctic discovery. Among those who went before him were Cabot, Cartier, Cortereal, and Frobisher, and his immediate successors were Hudson, Fox, and Baffin. Born in Devon, on the banks of the Dart, his playmates, as Mr. Markham pleasantly imagines, were Humphrey and Adrian Gilbert and Walter Raleigh ; at all
events, in after-life the two latter were among his most faith- ful friends. But nothing is known of his youth. Somewhere, perhaps at Totness, he got a " classical education ;" anyway, he had fair schooling. Yet, like Baffin, we first get sight of him when he is a grown man. At twenty-eight, he comes on the scene as an accomplished sailor, marries soon afterwards
Faith, daughter of Sir John Fulford, and still later projects his plan for the discovery of a North-West Passage to China and India. The merchants were eager to help, the mariners were keen on the business, the official world—at least one of its members, Walsingham—was ready to lend support. Apparently Davis did much to convince the Secretary and secure his confidence ; but the effective aid came from the City, where " Master William Sanderson," a rich and enlightened merchant, " advanced the largest share of the funds" required to fit out the expedition. And what an expedition wherewith to win new worlds,—one craft of fifty, and another of thirty-five tons ! Verily our ancestors were wont to do great things with very small means, whether it were to fight an Armada or contend with the tempests and the icebergs of Arctic and Antarctic seas.
Davis made three voyages to the North-West, 1585-87 ; h e did not find the passage, but he pointed to the way, and indicated the road also to the region since made famous as the hunting-ground of the Hudson's Bay Company. He was, says Mr. Markham, "a God-fearing man, gentle and courteous, considerate and thoughtful of the welfare of his crew, and beloved by his men—a very perfect specimen of an English sailor in the days of the great Queen." His amiability, indeed, appears even in the preparation for his first Arctic voyage, and when the Eskimo were first met, near what is now Godthaab, his forethought was justified. He had landed on an island where he met the natives :—
" Hearing the shouting and noise, Captain Bruton and Master Ellis of the `Moonshine' (thirty-five tons), manned their boat,. took the four musicians on board, and hurried either to rescue their chief or co-operate in his attempt to conciliate the natives [for which very purpose the musicians had been shipped at Dart- mouth]. When they arrived, Captain Davis caused the musicians • A Life of John Davis the Navigator, 18604808, Discoverer of Daris's Strait% By Clements B.. Markham, (LB., F.R.B. London: George Philip and Bons. to play, while he and his companions danced and made signs of friendship."
What a picture !—and one is glad to know that the simple method was successful, at least for a time, and that perfect confidence was established. In his second voyage, when he had a larger ship, and reaching Greenland, sent a boat ashore, the Eskimo, recognising some of the crew, "hung about the boat with such a comfortable joy as would require a long dis- course to be uttered." Davis gave them knives, refusing skins offered in exchange, saying that they were "given of curtesie." He set them to playing games, when, though the sailors were the better at the long-jump, the Eskimo proved the more skilful wrestlers. But his fine conduct did not pre- vent the Eskimo from stealing; he fired blank cartridge to frighten them, and the men said that his "friendly using gave them stomach for mischief." One of his Captains, Pope, went up the East Coast of Greenland, and we note that his men, who played football with the natives, showing amity, also had to fight with them, which implies provocation. Nothing, however, could move Davis from the gentler methods, which in the end proved fatal to him. In Arctic annals he occupies a high place. Two of the straits indicated by him "actually are North-West passages." The practical results of his work " were the opening of a most lucrative whale and seal fishery in Davis Strait, the extension of the cod-fishery to the coast of Labrador, and the eventual recolonisation of Greenland." And it is well said that " he lighted Hudson into his strait ; he lighted Baffin into his hay; he lighted Hans Egede to the scene of his Greenland labours," so that the Cross, found by him in the grave of some early Norse colonists, was once more erected on the shores of that rediscovered continent.
Davis was not a man of war, but he took part in battle, when needful, heartily, as he did all things. His share in the defeat of the Armada was a humble, but useful one, and he had a place in Cumberland's expedition to the Azores, and probably in the famous capture of Cadiz. His business, however, was discovery, and that induced him to sail with Cavendish in his second voyage, for he hoped, after passing the Straits of Magellan, to pass up the West Coast of America, and return home by the Arctic seas. It was a disastrous adventure, for Cavendish behaved ill ; and Davis, having to encounter mutiny as well as famine, barely escaped with his life, landing at Berehaven " as lost wanderers upon the sea," and finding at his home on the Dart that the faithless Faith, his wife, had fled with one Milbourne, who, when Davis returned, got him arrested on a charge which was proved to be false. Faith died soon afterwards, and Raleigh said that Milbourne was likely to be hanged for coining. During part of his widowhood, he wrote two books, from one of which, setting forth reasons in favour of the existence of a North-West Passage, Mr. Mark- ham quotes a striking paragraph, almost a prediction, in due time largely fulfilled, although " the passage by the North- West " proved useless. When it was made good, said Davis,—
" Then will her [Queen Elizabeth's] stately seat of London be the storehouse of Europe, the nurse of the world, and the renown of nations ; and all this by means of the excellent commodity of her position, the mightiness of her trade by force of shipping thereby arising, and most abundant access and intercourse from all the Kingdoms of the world. Then shall the idle hand be scorned, and plenty by industry in all this land proclaimed."
He could not charm the ears of the Lords of the Council, and his future voyages were either trading ventures, or expeditions to the Eastern seas. With a Dutch captain and crew, serving as " chief pilot," he went by the Cape of Good Hope to Achen, in Sumatra, where all of them were nearly murdered
by the Malays, Davis using his weapon against the treacherous assailants. When he returned home, the East India Company was about to send forth its first squadron under Captain James Lancaster. The service of Davis was eagerly sought again as chief pilot, and the " splendid success " of the venture was in great part due to his skill as a navi- gator. Unfortunately, he quitted the Company, lured away by an old friend, Sir Edward Michelborne, who sailed east on his own account, and induced Davis to ship with him. They arrived safely off the East Coast of the Malay Peninsula ; but when there, fell in with a junk crowded with Japanese pirates. Michelborne befriended them, but while at anchor, the Japanese resolved to seize the ship.
There was some reason to suspect them, but Davis, who was ordered to disarm those who came on board, could not bring himself to put that affront upon them,—an error which cost him his life, for they suddenly swarmed into the ship, and meeting Davis as he emerged from the cabin, they killed him, but did not get the ship, Michelborne and his men being too tough, and by no means gentle in dealing with pirates. So died this great seaman, who worked not for profit but love, who married science to experience, advanced the art of navigation, invented new instruments, and added largely by surveys to geographical knowledge. Mr. Markham, who has told so well the story of his life, says that his fault was a weakness arising from good-nature. He was too facile, and preferred expostulation when he should have used needful force. Still, and the narrative bears out the eulogium, " John Davis, the great discoverer, the scientific seaman, the con- summate pilot, takes rank among the foremost sea-worthies of the glorious reign of Queen Elizabeth." The book is a good piece of work, and should be popular.
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