of my company to tread out
the fire, and spurn it into the sea, which was done to show them
that we did contemn their sorceries.

It is a very English story--exactly what a modern Englishman would do;
only, perhaps, not believing that there was any real devil in the case,
which makes a difference. However, real or not real, after seeing him
patiently put up with such an injury, we will hope the poor Greenlander
had less respect for the devil than formerly.

Leaving Gilbert's Sound, Davis went on to the north-west, and in lat.
63 deg. fell in with a barrier of ice, which he coasted for thirteen days
without finding an opening. The very sight of an iceberg was new to all
his crew; and the ropes and shrouds, though it was midsummer, becoming
compassed with ice,--

The people began to fall sick and faint-hearted--whereupon, very
orderly, with good discretion, they entreated me to regard the
safety of mine own life, as well as the preservation of theirs; and
that I should not, through overbouldness, leave their widows and
fatherless children to give me bitter curses.

Whereupon, seeking counsel of God, it pleased His Divine Majesty to
move my heart to prosecute that which I hope shall be to His glory,
and to the contentation of every Christian mind.

He had two vessels--one of some burthen, the other a pinnace of thirty
tons. The result of the counsel which he had sought was, that he made
over his own large vessel to such as wished to return, and himself,
'thinking it better to die with honour than to return with infamy,' went
on, with such volunteers as would follow him, in a poor leaky cutter, up
the sea now in commemoration of that adventure called Davis's Straits.
He ascended 4 deg. North of the furthest known point, among storms and
icebergs, when the long days and twilight nights alone saved him from
being destroyed, and, coasting back along the American shore, he
discovered Hudson's Straits, supposed then to be the long-desired
entrance into the Pacific. This exploit drew the attention of
Walsingham, and by him Davis was presented to Burleigh, 'who was also
pleased to show him great encouragement.' If either these statesmen or
Elizabeth had been twenty years younger, his name would have filled a
larger space in history than a small corner of the map of the world;
but if he was employed at all in the last years of the century, no
_vates sacer_ has been found to celebrate hi