son Sebastian, Newfoundland was soon after discovered; and by Sebastian
after his father's death a long series of maritime enterprises were
subsequently undertaken with various success. For many years he was in
the service of Spain; but returning to England at the close of Henry the
eighth's reign, he was received with merited favor at court. Young king
Edward listened with eagerness to the relations of the aged navigator;
and touched by the unquenchable ardor of discovery which still burned in
the bosom of this contemporary and rival of Columbus, granted with
alacrity his royal license for the fitting out of three ships to explore
a north passage to the East Indies. The instructions for this voyage
were drawn up in a masterly manner by Cabot himself, and the command of
the expedition was given to sir Hugh Willoughby, and under him to
Richard Chancellor, a gentleman who had long been attached to the
service of the excellent sir Henry Sidney, by whom he was recommended to
this appointment in the warmest terms of affection and esteem.

The ships were separated by a tempest off the Norwegian coast; and
Willoughby, having encountered much foul weather and judging the season
too far advanced to proceed on so hazardous a voyage, laid up his vessel
in a bay on the shore of Lapland, with the purpose of awaiting the
return of spring. But such was the rigor of the season on this bleak and
inhospitable coast, that the admiral and his whole crew were frozen to
death in their cabin. Chancellor in the mean time, by dint of superior
sailing, was enabled to surmount the perils of the way. He doubled the
North Cape, a limit never passed by English keel before, and still
proceeding eastward, found entrance into an unknown gulf, which proved
to be the White Sea, and dropped anchor at length in the port of
Archangel.

The rude natives were surprised and terrified by the appearance of a
strange vessel much superior in size to any which they had before
beheld; but after a time, venturing on an intercourse with the
navigators, they acquainted them, that they were subjects of the czar of
Muscovy, and that they had sent to apprize him of so extraordinary an
arrival. On the return of the messenger, Chancellor received an
invitation to visit the court of Moscow. The czar, barbarian as he was
in manners and habits, possessed however strong sense and an inquiring
mind; he had formed great projects for the improvement of his empire,
and he was imme