ROSS AND PARRY

TL;DRAbstract

The discovery of a north-west passage had “been always a favourite object with the British nation; and the voyages to which it gave birth, such as those of Frobisher, Davis, Baffin, Hudson, and others, exhibiting as they do incontestable proofs of perseverance and great nautical skill operating with slender means, reflect, perhaps, more credit on those who undertook them, than many voyages which were attended with brilliant discoveries. When the late war was at an end, and the British government had time to employ some portion of its marine in the labours of peace, it was determined to send an expedition to explore Baffin's Bay, in the hope that the examination of the shores of that great sea might detect the long-wished for north-west passage. For this purpose the Isabella and the Alexander were fitted out, and placed under the command of captain Ross, an officer well experienced in the navigation of northern seas: the Alexander was commanded by lieutenant Parry, a young officer whose

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