CHAPTER II 
THE NORTHEAST PASSAGE 
THE series of voyages in lower latitudes that 
followed the discovery of the New World by 
Columbus had their parallel during the following 
centuries in the persistent efforts of adventurous 
navigators to solve the problem of establishing 
communication with Cathay via the arctic seas. 
A spirit of trade and commerce animated the 
original promoters of the search for either a North- 
east or Northwest Passage, — a somewhat berated 
spirit which, nevertheless, is the basis of the mate- 
rial prosperity of the civilized nations. Desirous 
of participating in the great profits of the oriental 
trade carried on by their southern rivals, the enter- 
prising merchants of England sought a northern 
route when debarred from the southern. 
The European waters of the Northeast Passage 
must have been known by the Norse and Russian 
mariners from the earlier centuries, though the 
northern shore lines of the Scandinavian peninsula 
were not definitely mapped until 1539, reproduced 
by Olaus Magnus in “Historia de Gentibus Sep- 
tentrionalibus,” Rome, 1555. (See page 15.) Yet 
others had rounded the North Cape in the ninth 
[13]