LANCASTER, Sir James, an English seaman of the Elizabethan era, noted as the commander of the first expedition sent out by the East India Company in 1600-1603; besides accomplishing all that he was sent out to do, he opened
Lancaster, commercial negotiations between his employers and some of the petty princes of Java and Sumatra. During his voyage he learned enough about the north-west passage to feel assured of its practicability. When he reached home he urged the matter so strongly that expeditions were sent out under Weymouth, Hudson, and other experienced navigators. The secret was not destined to be unriddled for two centuries and a half later; but Baffin, one of those who advanced farthest N., gave the name of Lancaster Sound to a strait which has now been found to communicate with the Arctic Ocean. Had the explorers pushed their way through this sound they would have solved the mystery of the north-west passage. Lancaster's services were acknowledged with the title of knighthood. He died in 1620. The history of his discoveries is given in vol. iii. of Hakluyt's Voyages, and vol. i. of Purchas' Pilgrims.