Part 20 (2/2)

CHAPTER xxxII

SEARCH FOR A NORTH-EAST PassAGE

England was noaking from her sleep--too late to possess the Spice Islands--too late for India and the Cape of Good Hope--too late, it would seeuese held the eastern route, the Spaniards the western route to the Spice Islands But what if there were a northern route? All ways apparently led to Cathay Why should England not find a way to that glorious land by taking a northern course?

”If the seas toward the north be navigable we o to these Spice Islands by a shorter way than Spain and Portugal,” said Master Thorne of Bristol--a friend of the Cabots

”But the northern seas are blocked with ice and the northern lands are too cold for man to dwell in,” objected soable_,” was the heroic reply

”It was in this belief, and in this heroic teland set herself to take possession of her heritage, the north But it was not till the reign of Edward VI that a Company of Merchant Adventurers was forions, Dominions, Islands, and places unknoith old Sebastian Cabot as its first governor, and not till the year 1553 that three little shi+ps under Sir Hugh Willoughby and Richard Chancellor were fitted out for a northern cruise They carried letters of introduction froes, and Governors of the Earth in all places under the universal heaven,” including those ”inhabiting the north-east parts of the world toward the hby, ”aon the _Bona Esperanza_, a good little shi+p of one hundred and twenty tons The next in coreat estiood parts of wit in hih not so fast as the flag-shi+p, was slightly larger So certain were the promoters that the shi+ps would reach the hot climates beyond Cathay that they had them sheathed with lead to protect them from worms which had proved so destructive in the tropics before

The account of the start of these first English Arctic explorers is too quaint to be passed in silence ”It was thought best that by the 20th of May the Captains and Mariners should take shi+pping and depart if it pleased God They, having saluted their acquaintance, one his wife, another his children, another his kinsfolk, and another his friends dearer than his kinsfolk, were ready at the day appointed

The greater shi+ps are towed doith boats and oars, and theall apparelled in sky-coloured cloth,come near to Greenwich (where the Court then lay), the Courtiers caether, standing very thick upon the shore: the Privy Council, they looked out of the s of the Court, and the rest ran up to the tops of the towers, and the ain with the noise thereof But, alas! the good King Edward--he only by reason of his sickness was absent from this show”

The shi+ps dropped down to Woolith the tide and coasted along the east coast of England till ”at the last with a good wind they hoisted up sail and co their last adieu to their native country--many of them could not refrain from tears”

Richard Chancellor himself had left behind two little sons, and his poor mind was tormented with sorrow and care

By the middle of July the North Sea had been crossed, and the three s adohby led his shi+ps to the Lofoten Islands, ”plentifully inhabited by very gentle people” under the King of Denmark They sailed on--

”To the west of theht the desolate shore”

till they had passed the North Cape, already discovered by Othere, the old sea-captain elt in Helgoland

A terrible storeous that the shi+ps could not keep their intended course, but soreat peril and hazard” Then Sir Hugh Willoughby shouted across the roaring seas to Richard Chancellor, begging hiot separated and never hby was blown across the sea to Nova Zeh and storhost Haunted that dreary coast

But onward still I sailed”

The weather grew more and more Arctic, and he made his way over to a haven in Lapland where he decided to winter He sent ns of mankind could be found; there were bears and foxes and all

It must have been desperately dreary as the winter advanced, with ice and snow and freezing winds frolishmen did, how they endured the bitter winter on the desolate shores of Lapland, no hby was alive in January 1554--then all is silent

And what of Richard Chancellor on board the _Bonadventure_? ”Pensive, heavy, and sorrowful,” but resolute to carry out his orders, ”Master Chancellor held on his course towards that unknown part of the world, and sailed so far that he caht at all, but a continual light and brightness of the Sun, shi+ning clearly upon the huge and e bay where he anchored,friends with the fisher folk on the shores of the White Sea to the north of Russia

So frightened were the natives at the greatness of the English shi+ps that at first they ran away, half-dead with fear Soon, however, they regained confidence and, throwing thean to kiss the explorer's feet, ”but he (according to his great and singular courtesy) looked pleasantly upon theht food to the ”new-co of the arrival of ”a strange nation of singular gentleness and courtesy”

Then the King of Russia or Muscovie--Ivan Vasiliwich--sent for Master Chancellor to go to Moscow The journey had to beand weary journey it uide lost the way, and they had travelled nearly one thousand five hundred miles before Master Chancellor careat as the city of London with all its suburbs,” re's palace, Master Chancellor was received by one hundred Russian courtiers dressed in cloth of gold to the very ankles The King sat aloft on a high throne, with a crown of gold on his head, holding in his hand a glittering sceptre studded with precious stones The Englishraciously and read the letter from Edward VI with interest They did not know that the boy-king was dead, and that his sister Mary was on the throne of England

The King was lishmen

That of one of the coth, ”thick, broad, and yellow coloured” ”This is God's gift,” said the Russians

[Illustration: IVAN VASILIWICH, KING OF MUSCOVIE Froland the King sent a letter by the hands of Richard Chancellor, giving leave readily for England to trade with Russia

Master Chancellor seeain safely with his account of Russia, which encouraged the Merchant Adventurers to send forth reat new country of which they knew so little