<P> As part of another expedition, in July 1583 Sir Humphrey Gilbert, who had written a treatise on the discovery of the passage and was a backer of Frobisher, claimed the territory of Newfoundland for the English crown . On August 8, 1585, the English explorer John Davis entered Cumberland Sound, Baffin Island . </P> <P> The major rivers on the east coast were also explored in case they could lead to a transcontinental passage . Jacques Cartier's explorations of the Saint Lawrence River were initiated in hope of finding a way through the continent . Cartier became persuaded that the St. Lawrence was the Passage; when he found the way blocked by rapids at what is now Montreal, he was so certain that these rapids were all that was keeping him from China (in French, la Chine), that he named the rapids for China . To this day, they are known as the Lachine Rapids . </P> <P> In 1602, George Weymouth became the first European to explore what would later be called Hudson Strait when he sailed Discovery 300 nautical miles into the Strait . Weymouth's expedition to find the Northwest Passage was funded jointly by the British East India Company and the Muscovy Company . The Discovery was the same ship used by Henry Hudson on his final voyage . </P> <P> John Knight, employed by the British East India Company and the Muscovy Company, set out in 1606 to follow up on Weymouth's discoveries and find the Northwest Passage . After his ship ran aground and was nearly crushed by ice, Knight disappeared while searching for a better anchorage . </P>

I sailed through the north atlantic and discovered canada