ve hope of the long-sought
passage to Cathay.

It was a memorable day in the annals of discovery, 30th June 1587,
when Davis reached this famous point on the coast of Greenland. "A
bright blue sea extended to the horizon on the north and west,
obstructed by no ice, but here and there a few majestic icebergs with
peaks snowy shooting up into the sky." To the eastward were the granite
mountains of Greenland, and beyond them the white line of the mightiest
glacier in the world. Rising immediately above the tiny vessel was
the beetling wall of Hope Sanderson, with its summit eight hundred
and fifty feet above sea-level. At its base the sea was a sheet of
foam and spray. It must have been a scene like fairyland, for, as Davis
remarked, there was "no ice towards the north, but a great sea, free,
large, very salt and blue, and of an unsearchable depth."

But again disappointment awaited him. That night a wind from the north
barred further advance as a mighty bank of ice some eight feet thick
came drifting down toward the Atlantic. Again and again he attempted
to get on, but it was impossible, and reluctantly enough he turned
the little ship southwards.

"This Davis hath been three times employed; why hath he not found the
passage?" said the folk at home when he returned and reported his doings.
How little they realised the difficulties of the way. The commander
of the twenty-ton _Ellen_ had done more than any man had done before
him in the way of Arctic exploration. He had discovered seven hundred
and thirty-two miles of coast from Cape Farewell to Sanderson's Hope;
he had examined the whole coast of Labrador; he had "converted the
Arctic regions from a confused myth into a defined area." "He lighted
Baffin into his bay. He lighted Hudson into his strait. He lighted
Hans Egede to the scene of his Greenland labour." And more than this,
says his enthusiastic biographer: "His true-hearted devotion to the
cause of Arctic discovery, his patient scientific research, his
loyalty to his employers, his dauntless gallantry and enthusiasm form
an example which will be a beacon-light to maritime explorers for all
time to come."

"And Davis three times forth for the north-west made,
Still striving by that course t'enrich the English trade;
And as he well deserved, to his eternal fame,
There, by a mighty sea, immortalised his name."

CHAPTER XXXVI

BARENTS SAILS TO SPITZBERGEN

With the third failure of John