chas* in his abridgment of the journal of James Hall's voyages from Denmark to Greenland. In his first voyage [A.D. 1605] he remarks thus: "Being in the latitude of 5910, we looked to have seen Busse Island; but I do verily suppose the same to be placed in a wrong latitude in the marine charts." In his second voyage [1606] he saw land which he "supposed to be Busse Island, lying more to the westward than it is placed in the marine charts ;" and the next day, viz., July 2d, he writes, "we were in a great current, setting S.S.W., which I suppose to set between Busse Island and Frisland over towards America." In a fourth voyage, made in 1612, by the same James Hall, from England, for the discovery of a N.W. passage, of which there is a journal written by John Gatonbe, and preserved in Churchill's Collections,† they kept a good look-out, both in going and returning, for the island of Frisland, but could not see it. In a map prefixed to this voyage, Frisland is laid down between the latitude of 61° and 62°, and Buss in the latitude of 57°. In Gatonbe's journal the distance between Shetland and Frisland is computed to be 260 * Vol. iv., p. 815, 822. leagues; the southernmost part of Frisland and the northernmost part of Shetland are said to be in the same latitude. There is also a particular map of Frisland preserved by Purchas,* in which are delineated several towns and cities; the two islands of Ilofo and Ledovo are laid down to the westward of it, and another called Stromio to the eastward. In a map of the North Seas prefixed to an anonymous account of Greenland, in Churchill's Collection,† we find Frisland laid down in the latitude of 62°, between Iceland and Greenland. We have, then, no reason to doubt the existence of these islands as late as the begining of the last century; at what time they disappeared is uncertain, but that their place has since been occupied by a shoal we have also credible testimony. The appearance and disappearance of islands in the Northern Sea is no uncommon thing. Besides former events of this kind, there is one very recent. In the year 1783, by means of a volcanic eruption, two islands were produced in the sea near the S.E. coast of Iceland. One was supposed to be so per* Vol. iv., p. 625. Vol. ii., p. 378. manent, that the King of Denmark sent and took formal possession of it as part of his dominions; but the ocean, paying no regard to the territorial claim of a mortal sovereign, has since reabsorbed it in his watery bosom.* These reasons incline me to believe that Dr. Forster's first opinion was well founded, as far as it respects Frisland. He supposes Porland to be the cluster of islands called Faro.† But Porland is said to lie south of Frisland, whereas the Faro Islands lie northwest of Orkney, which he supposes to be Frisland. The learned doctor, who is in general very accurate, was not aware of this inconsistency. In the account which Hakluyt has given of Martin Frobisher's third voyage, we find that one of his ships, the Buss of Bridgewater, in her return fell in with land 50 leagues S.E. of Frisland, "which (it is said) was never found before," the southernmost part of which lay in latitude 571°. Along the coast of this land, which they judged to extend 25 leagues, they sailed for three days. The existence of this land Dr. Forster seems to * See a new Geographical Grammar, by a society in Edinburgh, published by Alexander Kincaid, vol. i., p. 123. + Northern Voyages, p. 207. Hakluyt, vol. iii., p. 93. Ibid., p. 180. doubt, but yet allows that, "if it was then really discovered, it must have sunk afterward into the sea, as it has never been seen again, or else these navigators must have been mistaken in their reckoning." If such an island or cluster of islands did exist in the situation described by Frobisher, it might be the Porland of Zeno; for the southernmost part of Frisland lay in the latitude of 60°; the southernmost part of this land in 57, in a direction S. E. from it. It was probably called Buss by the English, from the name of Frobisher's vessel which discovered it. The only proof which can now be produced of this fact must be the actual existence of rocks and shoals in or near the same place. Of this, it is happily in my power to produce the evidence of two experienced shipmasters, of incontestable veracity, now living.* The first is Isaac Smith, of Malden, near Boston, from whose logbook I have made the following extract: "In a voyage from Petersburgh to Boston, in the ship Thomas and Sarah, belonging to Thomas Russell, Esq., of Boston, merchant, Thursday, August 11, 1785, course W.N.W., wind W.S.W. At 4 A.M. discovered a large rock ahead, which * 1794. for some time we took to be a ship under close-reefed topsail. At 7, being within two miles, saw breakers under our lee, on which account wore ship. There are breakers in two places bearing S.E.; one a mile, the other two miles from the rock. It lies in lat. 57° 38'; longitude west from London, 13° 36′; and may be discovered five leagues off. We sounded, and had 56 fathoms. The rock appears to be about 100 yards in circumference, and 50 feet above water. It makes like a haystack, black below and white on the top." The other is Nathaniel Goodwin, of Boston, who, in his homeward passage from Amsterdam, on the 15th of August, 1793, saw the same rock. According to his observation (which, however, on that day was a little dubious), it lies in lat 57° 48', and lon. 13° 46'. He passed within two miles of it to the southward, and saw breakers to the northward of it. Its appearance he describes in the same manner with Smith. From these authorities I am strongly inclined to believe that the shoal denominated "the sunken land of Buss" is either a part of the ancient Frisland or of some island in its neighbourhood; and that the rock and ledges seen by Smith and Goodwin belonged |