s our moory and waste grounds of England are";
he found, too, mosses and wild flowers in the sheltered places. But
his business lay in the icy waters, and he boldly pushed forward. But
ice and snow and fog made further progress impossible; shrouds, ropes,
and sails were turned into a frozen mass, and the crew was filled with
despair. "Our men began to grow sick and feeble and hopeless of good
success, and they advised me that in conscience I ought to regard the
safety of mine own life with the preservation of theirs, and that I
should not through my over-boldness leave their widows and fatherless
children to give me bitter curses."

So Davis rearranged his crews and provisions, and with the _Moonshine_
and a selection of his best men he determined to voyage on "as God
should direct him," while the _Mermaid_ should carry the sick and
feeble and fainthearted home. Davis then crossed over the strait
called by his name and explored the coast about Cumberland Sound. Again
he tried here to discover the long-sought passage, but the brief summer
season was almost past and he had to content himself with exploring
the shores of Labrador, unconsciously following the track made by John
Cabot eighty-nine years before.

But on his return home the merchants of London were disappointed. Davis
had indeed explored an immense extent of coast-line, and he had brought
back a cargo of cod-fish and five hundred seal skins, but Cathay seemed
as far off as ever. One merchant prince, Sanderson by name, was still
very keen, and he helped Davis to fit out yet another expedition. With
three ships, the _Sunshine_, the _Elizabeth_, and the _Helen_, the
undaunted Arctic explorer now found himself for the third summer in
succession at his old halting-place, Gilbert's Sound, on the west
coast of Greenland.

Leaving his somewhat discontented crews to go fishing off the coast
of Labrador, he took the little twenty-ton pinnace, with a small party
of brave spirits like his own, and made his way northwards in a free
and open sea. The weather was hot, land was visible on both sides,
and the English mariners were under the impression that they were
sailing up a gulf. But the passage grew wider and wider, till Davis
found himself with the sea all open to west and north. He had crossed
the Arctic Circle and reached the most northerly point ever yet reached
by an explorer. Seeing on his right a lofty cliff, he named it
"Sanderson his Hope," for it seemed to gi