In his own way, however, he took an opportunity of administering a lesson to them of a more wholesome kind than could be given with gunpowder and bullets Like the rest of his countrymen, he believed the savage Indians in their idolatries to be worshippers of the devil.  “They are witches,” he says; “they have images in great store, and use many kinds of enchantments.”  And these enchantments they tried on one occasion to put in force against himself and his crew.

“Being on shore on the 4th day of July, one of them made a long oration, and then kindled a fire, into which with many strange words and gestures he put divers things, which we supposed to be a sacrifice.  Myself and certain of my company standing by, they desired us to go into the smoke.  I desired them to go into the smoke, which they would by no means do.  I then took one of them and thrust him into the smoke, and willed one 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. 63^0 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 called Davis’s Straits, in commemoration of that adventure, 4^0 north of the furthest known point, among storms and icebergs, by which the long days and twilight nights alone saved him from being destroyed, and, coasting back along the American shore, discovered Hudson’s Straits, supposed then to be the long-desired entrance into the Pacific.  This exploit drew the attention of Walsingham, and