base of Africa was known. But it was long and
arduous beyond description. Even more arduous was the sea-way found by
Magellan: the whole side of the continent must be traversed. The
dreadful terrors of the straits that separate South America from the
Land of Fire must be essayed: and beyond that a voyage of thirteen
thousand miles across the Pacific, during which the little caravels
must slowly make their way northward again till the latitude of Cathay
was reached, parallel to that of Spain itself. For any other sea-way
to Asia the known coast-line of America offered an impassable barrier.
In only one region, and that as yet unknown, might an easier and more
direct way be found towards the eastern empires. This was by way of
the northern seas, either round the top of Asia or, more direct still
perhaps, by entering those ice-bound seas that lay beyond the Great
Banks of Newfoundland and the coastal waters visited by Jacques
Cartier. Into the entrance of these waters the ships of the Cabots
flying the {6} English flag had already made their way at the close of
the fifteenth century. They seem to have reached as far, or nearly as
far, as the northern limits of Labrador, and Sebastian Cabot had said
that beyond the point reached by their ships the sea opened out before
them to the west. No further exploration was made, indeed, for
three-quarters of a century after the Cabots, but from this time on the
idea of a North-West Passage and the possibility of a great achievement
in this direction remained as a tradition with English seamen.

It was natural, then, that the English sailors of the sixteenth century
should turn to the northern seas. The eastern passage, from the German
Ocean round the top of Russia and Asia, was first attempted. As early
as the reign of Edward the Sixth, a company of adventurers, commonly
called the Muscovy Company, sailed their ships round the north of
Norway and opened a connection with Russia by way of the White Sea.
But the sailing masters of the company tried in vain to find a passage
in this direction to the east. Their ships reached as far as the Kara
Sea at about the point where the present boundary of European Russia
separates it from Siberia. Beyond this extended countless leagues of
{7} impassable ice and the rock-bound desolation of Northern Asia.

It remained to seek a passage in the opposite direction by way of the
Arctic seas that lay above America. To find such a passage a