Chapter XVIII: Appendix: I (1)

A LETTER FROM JOHN BALAK TO GERARD MERCATOR.

[Hakluyt, Principal Navigations, vol. i, pp. 509–510.]

A learned epistle, written, 1581, unto the famous Cosmographer,
M. Gerardus Mercator, concerning the riuer
Pechora, Naramsay, Cara reca, the mighty riuer of Ob,
the place of Yaks Olgush in Siberia, the great riuer Ardoh,
the lake of Kittay called of the borderers Paraha,
[and] the countrey of Carrah Colmak; giving good
light to the discouery of the northeast passage
to Cathay, China, and the Malucaes.

Inclyto & celebri Gerardo Mercatori, domino & amico singulari, in manus proprias Duisburgi in Cliuia.

Cvm meminissem, amice optime, quanta, cum vnà ageremus, delectatione afficerere in legendis geographicis scriptis Homeri, Strabonis, Aristotelis, Plinij, Dionis et reliquorum, lætatus sum eo quod incidissem in hunc nuncium, qui tibi has literas tradit, quem tibi commendatum esse valde cupio, quique dudum Arusburgi hîc ad Ossellam fluuium appulit. Hominis experientia, vt mihi quidem videtur, multum te adiuuerit in re vna, eaque summis à te votis expetita, et magnopere elaborata, dequa tam varie inter se dissentiunt cosmographi recentiores: patefactione nimirum ingentis illius Promontorij Tabin, celebrisque illius & opulentæ regionis sub Cathayorum rege per oceanum ad orientem brumalem. Alferius is est natione Belga, qui captiuus aliquot annos vixit in Moscouitarum ditione, apud viros illic celeberrimos Yacouium & Vnekium; à quibus Antuerpiam missus est accersitum homines rei nauticæ peritos, qui satis amplo proposito præmio ad illos viros se recipiant, qui Sueuo artifice duas ad eam patefactionem naues ædificarunt in Duina fluuio. Vt ille rem proponit, quamquam sine arte, apposite tamen, & vt satis intelligas, quod quæso diligenter perpendas, aditus ad Cathayam per orientem proculdubio breuissimus est & admodum expeditus. Adijt ipse fluuium Obam tum terra per Samoedorum & Sibericorum regionem, tum mari per littus Pechoræ fluminis ad orientem. Hac experientia confirmatus certò apud se statuit nauim mercibus onustam, cuius carinam non nimium profundè demissam esse vult, in sinum S. Nicolai conducere in regione Moscouitarum, instructam illam quidem rebus omnibus ad eam patefactionem necessarijs, atque illic redintegrato commeatu, Moscouiticæ nationis notissimos iusta mercede asciscere, qui et Samoedicam linguam pulchre teneant, & fluuium Ob exploratum habeant, vt qui quotannis ea loca ventitant. Vnde Maio exeunte constituit pergere ad orientum per continentem Vgoriæ ad orientales partes Pechoræ, insulamque cui nomen est Dolgoia. Hîc latitudines obseruare, terram describere, bolidem demittere, locorumque ac punctorum distantias annotare, vbi & quoties licebit. Et quoniam Pechoræ sinus vel euntibus vel redeuntibus commodissimus est tum subsidij tum diuersorij locus proper glaciem & tempestates, diem impendere decreuit cognoscendis vadis, facillimoque nauium aditu inueniendo: quo loco antehac aquarum altitudinem duntaxat ad quinque pedes inuenit, sed profundiores canales esse non dubitat: deinde per eos fines pergere ad tria quatuorve milliaria nautica, relicta insula, quam Vaigats vocant, media forè via inter Vgoriam & Nouam Zemblam: tum sinum quendam præterire inter Vaigats atque Obam, qui per meridiem vergens pertingit ad terram Vgoriæ, in quem confluunt exigui duo amnes, Marmesia atque Carah, ad quos amnes gens alia Samoedorum accolit immanis & efferata. Multa in eo tractu loca vadosa, multas cataractas inuenit, sed tamen per quas possit nauigari. Vbi ad fluuium Obam peruentum fuerit, qui quidem fluuius (vt referunt Samoedi) septuaginta habet ostia, quæ propter ingentem latitudinem multas magnasque concludentem insulas, quas varij incolunt populi, vix quisquam animaduertat, ne temporis nimium impendat, constituit ad summum tria quatuorve tentare ora, ea præsertim quæ ex consilio incolarum, quos in itinere aliquot habiturus est, commodissima videbuntur, triaque quatuorve eius regionis nauigiola tentandis ostijs adhibere, quàm fieri potest ad littus proxime, (quod quidem sub itinere trium dierum incolitur) vt quo loco tutissime nauigari possit, intelligat.

Quod si nauim per fluuium Obam aduerso amne possit impellere, prima si poterit cataracta, eaque, vt verisimile est, commodissima, ad eumque locum appellere, quem aliquando ipse cum suis aliquot per Sibericorum regionem terra adijt, qui duodecim iuxta dierum itinere distat à mari, qua influit in mare flumen Ob, qui locus est in continente, propè fluuium Ob cui nomen est Yaks Olgush, nomine mutuato ab illo magno profluente flumini Ob illabente, tum certè speraret maximas se difficultates superasse. Referunt enim illic populares, qui trium duntaxat dierum nauigatione ab eo loco abfuerunt (quod illic rarum est, eo quòd multo ad vnum duntaxat diem cymbas pelliceas à littore propellentes oborta tempestate perierunt, cùm neque à sole neque à syderibus rectionem scirent petere) per transuersum fluminis Ob, vnde spaciosum esse illius latitudinem constat, grandes se carinas præciosis onustas mercibus magno fluuio delatas vidisse per nigros, puta Æthiopes. Eum fluuium Ardoh illi vocant, qui influit in lacum Kittayum, quem Paraha illi nominant, cui contermina est gens illa latissimè fusa, quam Carrah Colmak appellant, non alia certè quam Cathaya. Illic, si necessitas postulabit, opportunum erit hybernare, se suosque reficere resque omnes necessarias conquirere. Quod si acciderit, non dubitat interim plurimùm se adiutum iri, plura illic quærentum atque ediscentem. Veruntamen sperat æstate eadem ad Cathayorum fines se peruenturum, nisi ingenti glaciei mole ad os fluuij Obæ impediatur, quæ maior interdum, interdum minor est. Tum per Pechoram redire statuit, atque illic hybernare: vel si id non poterit, in flumen Duinæ, quo mature satis pertinget, atque ita primo vere proximo in itinere progredi. Vnum est quod suo loco oblitus sum. Qui locum illum Yaks Olgush incolunt, à maioribus suis olim prædicatum asserunt, se in lacu Kitthayo dulcissimam campanarum harmoniam audiuisse, atque ampla ædificia conspexisse. Et cùm gentis Carrah Colmak mentionem faciunt (Cathaya illa est) ab imò pectore suspiria repetunt, manibusque proiectis suspiciunt in cœlum, velut insignem illius splendorum innuentes atque admirantes. Vtinam Alferius hic cosmographiam melius saperet, multum ad illius vsum adiungeret, qui sanè plurimus est. Multa prætereo, vir amicissime, ipsumque hominem te audire cupio, qui mihi spospondit se in itinere Duisburgi te visurum. Auet enim tecum conferre sermones, & procul dubio hominem multum adiuueris. Satis instructus videtur pecunia & gratia, in quibus alijsque officijs amicitiæ feci illi, si vellet, mei copiam. Deus Optimus maximus hominis votis atque alacritati faueat, initia secundet, successus fortunet, exitum fœlicissimum concedat. Vale amice ac Domine singularis.

Arusburgi ad Ossellam fluuium 20 Februarij, 1581.

Tuus quantus quantus sum

Joannes Balakus.

II.

AN ACCOUNT OF HENRY HUDSON’S VISIT TO NOVAYA ZEMLYA.

Extracted from “A Second Voyage or Employment of Master Henry Hudson, for finding a Passage to the East Indies by the North-East: written by himselfe.” Printed in Purchas his Pilgrimes, vol. iii, pp. 577–579.

[June, 1608.] The sixe and twentieth, faire sun-shining weather, and little wind at east north-east. From twelue a clocke at night till foure this morning we stood southward two leagues, sounding wee had sixtie sixe fathome oaze, as afore. From four a clocke to noone, south-east and by south foure leagues, and had the sunne on the meridian on the south-east and by south point of the compasse, in the latitude of 72 degrees 25 minutes, and had sight of Noua Zembla foure or five leagues from vs, and the place called by the Hollanders Swart Cliffe bearing off south-east. In the after-noone wee had a fine gale at east north-east, and by eight of the clocke we had brought it to beare off vs east southerly, and sayled by the shoare a league from it.

The seuen and twentieth, all the fore-noone it was almost calme. Wee being two mile from the shoare, I sent my mate Robert Iuet and Iohn Cooke my boat-swaine on shoare, with foure others, to see what the land would yeeld that might bee profitable, and to fill two or three caskes with water. They found and brought aboord some whales finnes, two deeres hornes, and the dung of deere, and they told me that they saw grasse on the shoare of the last yeere, and young grasse came up amongst it a shaftman long, and it was boggie ground in some places; there are many streames of snow water nigh, it was very hot on the shoare, and the snow melted apace; they saw the footings of many great beares, of deere, and foxes. They went from vs at three a clocke in the morning, and came aboord at a south-east sunne; and at their comming we saw two or three companies of morses in the sea neere vs swimming, being almost calme. I presently sent my mate, Ladlow the carpenter, and sixe others ashoare, to a place where I thought the morses might come on the shoare; they found the place likely, but found no signe of any that had beene there. There was a crosse standing on the shoare, much driftwood, and signes of fires that had beene made there. They saw the footing of very great deere and bears, and much fowle, and a foxe; they brought aboord whale finnes, some mosse, flowers, and greene things, that did there grow. They brought also two peeces of a crosse, which they found there. The sunne was on the meridian on the north north-east, halfe a point easterly, before it began to fall. The sunnes height was 4 degrees 45 minutes, inclination 22 degrees 33 minutes, which makes the latitude 72 degrees 12 minutes. There is disagreement betweene this and the last obseruation; but by meanes of the cleerenesse of the sunne, the smoothnesse of the sea, and the neerness to land, wee could not bee deceiued, and care was taken in it.

The eight and twentieth, at foure a clocke in the morning, our boat came aboord, and brought two dozen of fowle, and some egges, whereof a few were good, and a whales finne; and wee all saw the sea full of morses, yet no signes of their being on shoare. And in this calme, from eight a clocke last eeuening till foure this morning, wee were drawne backe to the northward as farre as wee were the last eeuening at foure a clocke by a streame or a tide; and wee choose rather so to driue, then to aduenture the losse of an anchor and the spoyle of a cable. Heere our new ship-boate began to doe vs seruice, and was an incouragement to my companie, which want I found the last yeere.

The nine and twentieth, in the morning calme, being halfe a league from the shoare, the sea being smooth, the needle did encline 84 degrees; we had many morses in the sea neere vs, and desiring to find where they came on shoare, wee put to with sayle and oares, towing in our boat and rowing in our barke, to get about a point of land, from whence the land did fall more easterly, and the morses did goe that way. Wee had the sunne on the meridian on the south and by west point, halfe a point to the wester part of the compasse, in the latitude of 71 degrees 15 minutes. At two a clocke this after-noone we came to anchor in the mouth of a riuer, where lieth an iland in the mouth thereof foure leagues: wee anchored from the iland in two and thirtie fathomes blacke sandy ground. There droue much ice out of it with a streame that set out of the river or sound, and there were many morses sleeping on the ice, and by it we were put from our road twice this night; and being calme on this day, it pleased God at our neede to giue vs a fine gale, which freed vs out of danger. This day was calme, cleere and hot weather: all the night we rode still.

The thirtieth, calme, hot, and faire weather: we weighed in the morning, and towed and rowed, and at noone we came to anchor neere the ile aforesaid in the mouth of the riuer, and saw very much ice driuing in the sea, two leagues without vs, lying south-east and north-west, and driving to the north-west so fast, that wee could not by twelve a clocke at night see it out of the top. At the iland where wee rode lieth a little rocke, whereon were fortie or fiftie morses lying asleepe, being all that it could hold, it being so full and little. I sent my companie ashoare to them, leauing none aboord but my boy with mee; and by meanes of their neerenesse to the water they all got away, saue one which they killed, and brought his head aboord; and ere they came aboord they went on the iland, which is reasonable high and steepe, but flat on the top. They killed and brought with them a great fowle, whereof there were many, and likewise some egges, and in an houre they came aboord. The ile is two flight-shot ouer in length, and one in breadth. At midnight our anchor came home, and wee tayld aground by meanes of the strength of the streame; but by the helpe of God wee houed her off without hurt. In short time wee moued our ship, and rode still all night; and in the night wee had little wind at east and east south-east. Wee had at noone this day an obseruation, and were in the latitude of 71 degrees 15 minutes.

The first of July wee saw more ice to seaward of vs, from the south-east to the north-west, driuing to the north-west. At noone it was calme, and we had the sunne on the meridian on the south and by west point, halfe a point to the westerly part of the compasse, in the latitude of 71 degrees 24 minutes. This morning I sent my mate Eueret and foure of our companie, to rowe about the bay, to see what riuers were in the same, and to find where the morses did come on land, and to see a sound or great riuer in the bottome of the bay, which did alwaies send out a great streame to the north-wards, against the tide that came from thence: and I found the same, in comming in from the north to this place, before this. When, by the meanes of the great plenty of ice, the hope of passage betweene Newland and Noua Zembla was taken away, my purpose was by the Vaygats to passe by the mouth of the river Ob, and to double that way the north cape of Tartaria, or to giue reason wherefore it will not be: but being here, and hoping by the plentie of morses wee saw here to defray the charge of our voyage; and also that this sound might for some reasons bee a better passage to the east of Noua Zembla than the Vaygats, if it held according to my hope conceiued by the likenesse it gaue: for whereas we had a floud came from the northwards, yet this sound or riuer did runne so strong, that ice with the streame of this riuer was carried away, or anything else, against the floud: so that both in floud and ebbe, the streame doth hold a strong course, and it floweth from the north three houres, and ebbeth nine.

The second, the wind being at east south-east, it was reasonable cold and so was Friday; and the morses did not play in our sight as in warme weather. This morning at three of the clocke, my mate and companie came aboord, and brought a great deeres horne, a white locke of deeres haire, foure dozen of fowle, their boat halfe laden with drift wood, and some flowers and greene things, that they found growing on the shoare. They saw a herd of white deere of ten in a companie on the land, much drift wood lying on the shoare, many good bayes, and one riuer faire to see to, on the north shoare, for the morses to land on; but they saw no morses there, but signes that they had beene in the bayes. And the great riuer or sound, they certified me, was of breadth two or three leagues, and had no ground at twentie fathoms and that the water was of the colour of the sea, and very salt, and that the stream setteth strongly out of it. At sixe a clocke this morning, came much ice from the south-ward driuing upon us, very fearefull to looke on; but by the mercy of God and his mightie helpe, wee being moored with two anchors ahead, with vering out of one cable and heauing home the other, and fending off with beams and sparres, escaped the danger: which labour continued till sixe a clocke in the euening, and then it was past vs, and we rode still and tooke our rest this night.

The third, the wind at north a hard gale. At three a clocke this morning wee weighed our anchor, and set sayle, purposing to runne into the riuer or sound before spoken of.

The fourth, in the morning, it cleered up with the wind at north-west; we weighed and set sayle, and stood to the eastwards, and passed ouer a reefe and found on it fiue and a halfe, sixe, sixe and a halfe and seuen fathoms water: then wee saw that the sound was full and a very large riuer from the north-eastward free from ice, and a strong streame comming out of it; and we had sounding then, foure and thirtie fathoms water. Wee all conceiued hope of this northerly riuer or sound; and sayling in it, wee found three and twentie fathomes for three leagues, and after twentie fathomes for fiue or sixe leagues, all tough ozie ground. Then the winde vered more northerly, and the streame came downe so strong, that we could doe no good on it; we come to anchor, and went to supper, and then presently I sent my mate Iuet, with fiue more of our companie, in our boat with sayle and oares, to get up the riuer, being prouided with victuals and weapons for defence, willing them to sound as they went, and if it did continue still deepe, to go untill it did trende to the eastward or to the southwards; and wee rode still.

The fift, in the morning, we had the wind at west: we began to weigh anchor, purposing to set sayle, and to runne vp the sound after our companie: then the wind vered northerly upon vs, and we saued our labour. At noone our companie came aboord vs, having had a hard rought; for they had beene vp the river sixe or seven leagues, and sounded it from twentie to three and twentie, and after brought it to eight, sixe, and one fathome, and then to foure foot in the best: they then went ashoare, and found good store of wilde goose quills, a piece of an old oare, and some flowers, and green things which they found growing: they saw many deere, and so did we in our after-dayes sayling. They being come aboord, we presently set sayle with the wind at north north-west, and we stood out againe to the south-westwards, with sorrow that our labour was in vaine: for, had this sound held as it did make shew of, for breadth, depth, safenesse of harbour, and good anchor ground, it might haue yeelded an excellent passage to a more easterly sea. Generally, all the land of Noua Zembla that yet wee haue seene, is to a mans eye a pleasant land; much mayne high land with no snow on it, looking in some places greene, and deere feeding thereon; and the hills are partly covered with snow, and partly bare. It is no maruell that there is so much ice in the sea towards the Pole, so many sounds and riuers being in the lands of Noua Zembla and Newland to ingender it; besides the coasts of Pechora, Russia, and Groenland, with Lappia, as by proofes I finde by my trauell in these parts: by means of which ice I suppose there will be no nauigable passage this way. This eeuening wee had the wind at west and by south: wee therefore came to anchor under Deere Point; and it was a storme at sea, wee rode in twentie fathomes, ozie ground: I sent my mate Ladlow, with foure more ashore, to see whether any morses were on the shoare, and to kill some fowle (for we had seene no morses since Saturday, the second day of this moneth, that wee saw them driuing out of the ice). They found good landing for them, but no signe that they had been there: but they found that fire had beene made there, yet not lately. At ten of the clocke in the eeuening they came aboord, and brought with them neere an hundred fowles called wellocks; this night it was wet fogge, and very thicke and cold, the winde at west south-west.

The sixt, in the morning, wee had the wind stormie and shifting, betweene the west and south-west, against us for doing any good: we rode still, and had much ice driuing by vs to the eastwards of vs. At nine of the clocke, this eeuening wee had the wind at north north-west: we presently weighed, and set sayle, and stood to the westward, being out of hope to find passage by the north-east: and my purpose was now to see whether Willoughbies Land were, as it is layd in our cardes; which if it were, wee might finde morses on it; for with the ice they were all driven from hence. This place vpon Noua Zembla, is another then that which the Hollanders call Costing Sarch, discouered by Oliuer Brownell: and William Barentsons obseruation doth witnesse the same. It is layd in plot by the Hollanders out of his true place too farre north: to what end I know not, unlesse to make it hold course with the compasse, not respecting the variation. It is as broad and like to yeeld passage as the Vaygats, and my hope was, that by the strong streame it would haue cleered it selfe; but it did not. It is so full of ice that you will hardly thinke it.

III.

WRITINGS OF WILLIAM BARENTS, PRESERVED BY PURCHAS [1620].

[Purchas his Pilgrimes, vol. iii, pp. 518–520.]

I thought good to adde hither for Barents or Barentsons sake, certaine notes which I have found (the one translated, the other written by him (amongst Master Hakluyts Paper).

This was written by William Barentson in a loose paper,
which was lent mee by the Reuerend Peter Plantius in
Amsterdam, March the seuen and twentieth, 1609. [1621]

The foure and twentieth of August, stilo nouo, 1595, wee spake with the Samoieds, and asked them how the land and sea did lye to the east of Way-gates. They sayd, after fiue dayes iourney going north-east, wee should come to a great sea, going south-east. This sea to the east of Way-gats they sayd was called Marmoria, that is to say, a calme sea. [1622] And they of Ward-house haue told vs the same. I asked them if at any time of the yeere it was frozen ouer? They sayd it was. And that sometimes they passed it with sleds. And the first of September 1595, stilo nouo, the Russes of the lodie or barke affirmed the same; saying, that the sea is sometimes so frozen, that the lodies or barkes going sometimes to Gielhsidi from Pechora, are forced there to winter; which Gielhsidi was wonne from the Tartars three yeeres past.

For the ebbe and flood there, I can finde none; but with the winde so runneth the streame. The third of September, stilo nouo, the winde was south-west, and then I found the water higher then with the winde at north north-east. Mine opinion is grounded on experience: that if there bee a passage, it is small, or else the sea could not rise with a southerly winde. And for the better proofe to know if there were a flood and ebbe, the ninth of September, stilo nouo, I went on shoare on the south end of the States Iland, where the crosse standeth, and layd a stone on the brinke of the water to proue whether there were a tide, and went round about the iland to shoote at a hare; and returning, I found the stone as I left it, and the water neither higher nor lowere: which prooueth, as afore, that there is no flood nor ebbe.

THE END.

NOTES

[1] See Dr. Beke’s Introduction.

[2] Brownel is the recognised English equivalent for Brunel.

[3] See Dr. Beke’s Introduction.

[4] Fair Island, an island half-way between the Orkneys and the Shetland Islands.

[5] Where, in the extract, miles are spoken of, they are nautical miles, or sixty in a degree of the equator.

[6] Spits- (pointed) Bergen (mountains).

[7] Gerrit de Veer, son of Albert de Veer and Cornelia van Adrichem, belonged to an old and illustrious Dutch family. He was a younger brother of Ellert de Veer, who occupied the position of Councillor of Amsterdam, when Gerrit de Veer undertook his voyage to Novaya Zemlya. In April 1610, Ellert de Veer was sent to England as plenipotentiary, on which occasion he was knighted by James I. Gerrit de Veer died, unmarried, abroad.—Heraldic Library, 1874.

[8] This chart is also to be found, with a few additions, in Asher’s Hudson the Navigator, and in Pontanus’ History of Amsterdam, 1614.

[9] The south point of Prince Charles’s Foreland?

[10] The Red Bay and the Zeemosche Bay, with the Archipelago and the Mauritius Bay?

[11] Cloven Cliff, and the other islands of the archipelago?

[12] The north-western archipelago, with Amsterdam and Danish Islands?

[13] Magdalena Bay.

[14] Sir Thomas Smith Bay.

[15] What is called in the chart, from Purchas’ His Pilgrimes, vol. iii, “The Barr”?

[16] Faire Forelaud, still known in the Dutch charts as Vogelhoek (Cape Bird)?

[17] Ice Sound?

[18] Bell Sound?

[19] The south point of Spitsbergen?

[20] Mr. De Jonge, Novaya Zemlya, p. 24.

[21] See “Notes on the Ice between Greenland and Novaya Zemlya”, by Captain M. H. Jansen, of the Dutch Navy (Proceedings of the R.G.S., vol. ix, No. IV, p. 170).

[22] Mr. de Jonge, Novaya Zemlya, p. 25.

[23] The second volume of the work “Die Cronycke van Hollant, Zeeland ende Vrieslant”, etc., was written by Ellert de Veer, the brother of Gerrit de Veer, and published by Lawrens Jacobsz at Amsterdam in 1591.

[24] Mr. Biddle, in his Memoir of Sebastian Cabot (8vo, London, 1831), has almost exhausted the subject of the exploits of this English worthy.

[25] Hakluyt, vol. i, p. 243.

[26] Ibid., p. 245.

[27] Lütke, Viermalige Reise durch das nördliche Eismeer, German translation by Erman (forming vol. ii of Berghaus’s Kabinets-Bibliothek der neuesten Reisen), 8vo, Berlin, 1835; pp. 12, 196.

[28] The island of Senyen, on the coast of Norway, in 69° N. lat.

[29] Hakluyt, vol. i, p. 236.

[30] Narratives of Voyages towards the North-West, Introduction, p. i, et seq.

[31] See Beechy, Voyage of Discovery towards the North Pole, p. 227.

[32] Page 312.

[33] Introduction, p. ix.

[34] Viermalige Reise, etc., p. 1.

[35] Hakluyt, vol. i, p. 274.

[36] Ibid., p. 277.

[37] Hakluyt, vol. i, p. 280.

[38] Page 14.

[39] Bolschoi Kamen (Lütke, p. 14), signifying “the great rock”, lit. “stone”.

[40] Hakluyt, vol. i, p. 280.

[41] Hakluyt, vol. i, p. 280.

[42] Page 14.

[43] Page 29.

[44] Hakluyt, vol. i, p. 283. See also pp. 284, 417, 464, 465.

[45] See page lxxv of the present Introduction.

[46] Principal Navigations, vol. i, pp. 382–3.

[47] He arrived at the monastery of St. Nicholas, at the western mouth of the Dwina, on July 23rd, 1568.—Hakluyt, vol. i, p. 376.

[48] He embarked at St. Nicholas about the end of July, 1569, and arrived safely at London in the month of September following.—Hakluyt, vol. i, p. 378.

[49] Hakluyt, vol. i, p. 473.

[50] This supposed interval between Novaya Zemlya and “Willoughby’s Land”, arose from Willoughby’s erroneous estimate of the distance of the coast reached by him from Senyen, which distance, “instead of 160 leagues, would be 230 leagues; an error, however, not much to be wondered at, considering the bad weather the fleet encountered between those places”.—Beechey, p. 228.

[51] Ere; before.

[52] Vol. i, pp. 433–5.

[53] Hakluyt, vol. i, pp. 433–4.

[54] Ibid., p. 435.

[55] Ibid., p. 446.

[56] See the note in page 28 of the present volume.

[57] Ibid.

[58] Hakluyt. vol. i, p. 446. [59] Ibid., p. 447.

[60] Hakluyt, vol. i, p. 448.

[61] Hakluyt, vol. i, p. 448.

[62] Ibid., p. 449.

[63] Ibid., p. 450.

[64] Ibid., p. 451.

[65] Ibid.

[66] Barrow, Chronological History of Voyages into the Arctic Regions, p. 99.

[67] Hakluyt, vol. i, p. 453.

[68] See page 64 of the present volume.

[69] Voyage towards the North Pole, p. 202.

[70] Hakluyt, vol. i, p. 233.

[71] Ibid., p. 308.

[72] Ibid., p. 435.

[73] Ibid., p. 437.

[74] Ibid., p. 437. These “notes” were also published by Hakluyt in his Divers Voyages touching the Discovery of America, under the title of “Notes in writing, besides more priuie by mouth, that were giuen by a gentleman,” etc. See Mr. J. Winter Jones’s edition of that work, p. 116.

[75] Hakluyt, vol. i, p. 443.

[76] Rundall, Narratives of Voyages to the North-West, pp. 15, 17.

[77] Pilgrimes, vol. iii, pp. 804–806.

[78] This may perhaps be an erroneous translation of the Russian word kotschmare, which, according to Lütke (p. 71), “is understood at Archangel to mean a three-masted vessel, of the burthen of about 500 poods,” or eight tons.

[79] We have here a proof that this document was translated out of Russian into English through either the Dutch or the German language, in which Trost does certainly mean “comfort”, but never “trust”. The translator of De Veer’s work commits the like mistake. See page 20 of the present volume.

[80] These several descriptions of fish are thus identified by Dr. Hamel, in his Tradescant der aeltere (St. Petersburg and Leipzig, 1847, 4to.), p. 323. Acipenser sturio, Salmo nasutus (Tschir), Salmo pelet (Pelet?), Salmo nelma (Nelma), Salmo muksun (Muksun), Salmo lavaretus (Sigi), Acipenser ruthenus, Salmo solar.

[81] Byeloi ostrov, or White Island. See Lütke, p. 68.

[82] Namely, Byeloi ostrov.

[83] See Lütke, pp. 71–79.

[84] Tradescant der aeltere, p. 323.

[85] Page 230.

[86] Page 231.

[87] Descriptio ac Delineatio geographica Detectionis Freti, sive Transitus ad Occasum supra Terras Americanas ... recens investigati ab Henrico Hudsono Anglo ... unà cum descriptione Terræ Samoiedarum et Tingoesiorum in Tartaria ad Ortum Freti Waygats sitæ, etc. Amsterodami, ex officina Hesselij Gerardi, anno 1612. Small 4to.

The full title of this work is given by Camus, in his Mémoire sur la Collection des grands et petits Voyages, p. 254, in which, however, he has “transitus ad Oceanum”, instead of “transitus ad Occasum”.

[88] In the tenth part of De Bry’s India Orientalis, which was published at Frankfort in 1613, an absurd blunder occurs with respect to this name. Massa’s map of 1612 is there reproduced, somewhat reduced in size, and with the Dutch names of places, etc., Latinized. And the of in “Matsei of tsar” being imagined to be the Dutch disjunctive conjunction (Engl. or), that name is accordingly done into Latin, and appears as “Matsei vel tsar”. In this map “Costintsarch” is not inserted.

It may not be uninteresting to add, that Gerard’s work, together with its maps, is inserted bodily in De Bry’s Collection, and on the title-page, which alone is altered, are the words, “Auctore M. Gotardo Arthusio, Dantiscano, tabulas in æs artificiosè incisas addente Johanne-Theodoro de Bry.” The artist has, indeed, the conscience to give Isaac Massa the credit of his map; but the name of the author of the work, “Hesselius Gerardus, Assumensis, philogeographicus,” signed at the foot of his Prolegomena, is left out, and there is nothing whatever to show that the entire work is not the original composition of G. Arthus.

[89] See the note in page 31 of the present volume.

[90] See page 30, note 4, and page 202, notes 6 and 7. Yet one more form has to be added to the list. It is Casting Sarch, which is employed by Captain Beechey in page 277 of his work already cited.

[91] See page 222 of the present work.

[92] “Tabula Russiæ ex autographo quod delineandum curavit Feodor filius Tsaris Boris desumpta, et ad fluvios Dwinam, Zuchanum, aliaque loca, quantum ex tabulis et notitiis ad nos delatis fieri potuit, amplificata ... ab Hesselo Gerardo, M.DC.XIII” (the last I was subsequently added). In Blaeu’s Grand Atlas, vol. ii, 1667.

[93] Page 952.

[94] Page 93.

[95] Vol. i, pp. 509–512.

[96] See page 261.

[97] Or Oliuer—Note by Hakluyt.

[98] Or Naramsay and Cara Reca.—Note by Hakluyt. And see page lxxiii, ante.

[99] These are seemingly the river Yenisei and lake Baikal.

[100] On the subject of Cathay, see Hakluyt’s Divers Voyages, etc., by J. Winter Jones, pp. 24, 117; and Major’s Notes upon Russia, vol. ii, pp. 42, 187. Carrah Colmak would appear to be intended for Black Kalmucks.

[101] Is not this a sign of the existence there of the Tibetan religion?

[102] Purchas, vol. iii, p. 579.

[103] See page 265.

[104] Vol. iii, p. 545.

[105] See page lxxxviii, ante.

[106] Page lxxxvii.

[107] The members of the Hakluyt Society are referred to their last published volume, namely, the second of Mr. Major’s translation of Herberstein’s celebrated work (Notes upon Russia, vol. ii, pp. 40, 41), for this description of the “golden old woman” and the other wonderful inhabitants of the regions beyond the Ob.

[108] F. Adelung, in his memoir “über die aeltern ausländischen Karten von Russland, bis 1700”, in Baer and Helmersen’s Beiträge zur Kenntniss des Russischen Reiches, vol. iv (1841), p. 18, when describing this map, says that it must have been very rare, since few appear to have been acquainted with it except Ortelius and Witsen; referring to the latter writer’s preface to his Noord en Oost Tartarye, where mention is made of it. But from a comparison of Gerard’s description of this map with that of Witsen, it is manifest that the latter merely repeated the former’s statement respecting it; so that there is no reason for supposing it to have been seen even by Witsen.

[109] Pilgrimes, vol. iii, p. 473.

[110] Prolegomena ad Hudsoni Detect., edit. Amstelodami per Hes. Gerard, 1611.—Marginal note by Purchas.

The date here attributed to Gerard’s work must be a misprint, as Camus makes no mention of any editions except that of 1612 and one of the following year. In this second edition of 1613, the far greater part of the Prolegomena is omitted, and what little remains is much altered. Camus remarks (p. 255), “l’avertissement est absolument changé; il est beaucoup plus court”. The title of the work is also slightly varied.

[111] Page 946.

[112] Engl. edit., p. 415.

[113] Chronological History, etc., p. 159.

[114] Ibid., p. 141, note.

[115] Tradescant, etc., pp. 232–235.

[116] Purchas, vol. iii, p. 464.

[117] Hakluyt, vol. i, p. 468.

[118] Linschoten, Voyagie, ofte Schip-vaert, van by Norden om, etc., fol. 3.

[119] Bennet and Van Wijk, in Nieuwe Verhandelingen van het Provinciaal Utrechtsche Genootschap, etc., vol. v, part 6 (1830), p. 26, call this vessel the Swallow (Zwaluw).

[120] Linschoten, fol. 3.

[121] J. R. Forster (Engl. edit., p. 411) says that the Amsterdam vessel was called “the Boot, or Messenger”. The original German work (Frankfort, 1784, 8vo) is not in the British Museum, nor is it known whether a copy of it is to be found in this country; so that there are no means of reference. But it may be suspected that there is some confusion here between Boot, “a boat”, and Bote, “a messenger”. Most modern writers have followed Forster in calling Barents’s vessel the Messenger. This name, translated into Russian by Lütke, and then rendered back into German by Erman (p. 17), has become der Gesandte, the Envoy or Ambassador!

[122] Bennett and Van Wijk, p. 26. [123] Linschoten, fol. 3.

[124] See the Appendix, page 273.

[125] “Ghelijck als t’selfde, uyt de beschrijvinghe ofte t’verbael des voorseyden Willem Barentsz. ghenoechsaem (met lief overcomende) verthoont sal worden, tot welckes ick my refereere.”—Voyagie, etc., fol. 18 verso.

[126] Te samen Admiraelschap ende een vast verbondt ghemaeckt.—Linschoten, fol. 3.

[127] De Veer, p. 6.

[128] Page 27.

[129] De Veer, pp. 11–16.

[130] Ibid., p. 20.

[131] De Veer, p. 27.

[132] De Veer, p. 36.

[133] Page 40.

[134] Al hoe wel dat die van Plancius opinie zijn, in haer Tractaet te verstaen gheven, dat ick da sake breeder aenghedient hadde, als sy in effect was, t’welck ick den discreten leser t’oordeelen gheve.— Voyagie, fol. 24.

[135] De Veer, p. 64. [136] De Veer, p. 42.

[137] The expressions vlyboot and yacht seem to have been used, like “cutter” and “clipper” in modern times, to designate quick-sailing vessels.

[138] Linschoten, fol. 24 verso.

[139] See De Veer, p. 50, and the note there.

[140] Linschoten, fol. 27 verso.

[141] De Veer, p. 53.

[142] Linschoten, fol. 27 verso.

[143] De Veer, p. 53.

[144] Ibid., p. 54.

[145] See pages lxxi-ii, ante.

[146] De Veer, p. 57.

[147] Linschoten, fol. 29 verso.

[148] De Veer, p. 60.

[149] De Veer, p. 60.

[150] Ibid., p. 61.

[151] Ibid., p. 62; Linschoten, fol. 32.

[152] Om immers aen ons devoir niet te ontbreken.—Linschoten, fol. 32.

[153] Linschoten, fol. 32.

[154] Linschoten, fol. 32.

[155] De Veer, p. 62; Linschoten, fol. 32.

[156] Waer over een groot debat ghevallen is.—Linschoten, fol. 32 verso.

[157] Linschoten, fol. 32 verso.

[158] See Appendix, p. 274.

[159] Linschoten, fol. 33; De Veer, p. 56.

[160] Ibid., fol. 33 verso. And see De Veer, p. 65.

[161] De Veer, p. 66.

[162] Linschoten, fol. 32 verso.

[163] Lütke says (p. 34) that it was signed by all except Barents. But it will be seen that his signature stands in its proper rank, the third, among the others. Lütke’s mistake appears to have arisen from his having followed Adelung, who copied from the Recueil de Voyages au Nord, where, in the list of names, that of Barents is certainly omitted, though from what cause except inadvertency cannot be imagined.

[164] De Veer, p. 70.

[165] See particularly pp. 175–178 and 188–193 of the present volume.

[166] De Veer, p. 125.

[167] Ibid., p. 193.

[168] De Veer, p. 73.

[169] Ibid., p. 76.

[170] Voyage towards the North Pole, p. 35.

[171] Purchas, vol. iii, p. 464.

[172] De Veer, p. 77, and the note there.

[173] De Veer, p. 85.

[174] Ibid., p. 78.

[175] Ibid., p. 83.

[176] Ibid., p. 84.

[177] Ibid., p. 84.

[178] De Veer, p. 85.

[179] Ibid.

[180] De Bry, India Orientalis, part ix, p. 51. In Scoresby’s Account of the Arctic Regions, vol. i, p. 80, the spot reached by Rijp is called “the Bay of Birds”, De Bry being referred to as the authority. But that writer’s words are—“Sub gr. 80 circa Volucrium Promontorium, a quo postmodum animo ad Guilhelmum redeundi discessit.”

Just as this sheet was going to press, we have found that the article in De Bry, from which the above extract is taken, is a translation of the following work:—“Histoire du Pays nommé Spitsberghe. Comme il a esté descouvert, sa situation et de ses Animauls. Avec le Discours des empeschemens que les Navires esquippes pour la peche des Baleines tant Basques, Hollandois, que Flamens, ont soufferts de la part des Anglois, en l’Année presente 1613. Escript par H. G. A. Et une Protestation contre les Anglois, & annullation de tous leurs frivolz argumens, par lesquelz ils pensent avoir droit de se faire seuls Maistres du dit Pays. A Amsterdam, chez Hessel Gerard A. a l’ensiegne de la Carte Nautiq. MD.C.XIII.”

This appears to be the work to which Purchas (vol. iii, p. 464) makes the following allusion:—“I have by me a French Storie of Spitsbergh, published 1613 by a Dutchman, which writeth against this English allegation, &c., but hotter arguments then I am willing to answer.” It gives an account of the voyage of Rijp and Barents, which, though agreeing generally with that of De Veer, differs from it in some important particulars. What is most remarkable is, that it is said to have been written by Barents himself:—“Mais pour sçavoir deuvement ce qu’ils ont trouvé en ceste descouvrāce, i’ay trouvé bon de mettre icy un petit extraict du Journal, escrit de la main propre de Guillaume Bernard”.

Want of time and space prevents us from giving the subject any lengthened consideration. But from what we have been able to make out, our impression decidedly is, that it was never written by Barents, but was attributed to him solely for the purpose of giving to it an authority which it might otherwise not have possessed. For, in the first place, Barents never returned to Holland subsequently to the discovery of Spitzbergen, but died off the coast of Novaya Zemlya, on the 20th of June, 1597; so that, even assuming him to have written a journal with his own hand, that journal must have passed into the possession of Gerrit de Veer, the historian of the voyage, and would assuredly have formed the basis of his narrative; and hence the discrepancies which exist between the two could never have arisen. And, in the second place, this journal states, under date of the 24th of June, 1596, “la terre (au lōg du quel prenions nostre route) estoit la plus part rompue, bien hault, et non autre que monts et montaignes agues, parquoy l’appellions Spitzbergen”. Yet, so far was Barents from having given this name to the newly-discovered country, that we find it expressly stated by De Veer (p. 82), under date of the 22nd of June, that they “esteemed this land to be Greene-land”. And not merely so, but after the latter’s return to Holland, where he had the opportunity of consulting with Plantius and other geographers, he still retained that opinion; for in the dedication to his work, which is dated “Amsterdam, April 29th, 1598”, he says that “the eastern part of Greenland (as we call it) in 80°, is now ascertained, where it was formerly thought there was only water and no land”; clearly proving that even at that time there was no idea of calling the newly-discovered country by the name of Spitzbergen, or of considering it anything but “the eastern part of Greenland”.

But, not long afterwards, the western coast of Spitzbergen having been visited by the vessels of other nations, and its importance as a station for the whale fishery having been ascertained, the Dutch were naturally anxious to establish their claim to its first discovery. This was the object of Hessel Gerard’s tract: a most legitimate one in itself, though, unfortunately, carried out in a very unscrupulous manner. For, not only did he attribute the authorship of this journal to Barents, and in it make him first use the name of Spitzbergen; but as, from the then prevailing ignorance respecting the geography of that country, it was not possible to trace that navigator’s true course along its eastern coast, round about its northern end, and so down the western coast, he did not scruple to falsify Barents’s track, and make him sail from Bear Island on the 13th of June sixteen Dutch miles west-north-west and fifteen miles north-west, where De Veer (p. 76) has sixteen miles north and somewhat easterly; and then again on the 14th, twenty-two miles north by west, where De Veer (p. 77) has twenty miles north and north and by east, and on the 16th thirty miles north and by east. By thus altering the direction of Barents’ course, Gerard certainly brought him to the western coast of Spitzbergen; but he thereby rendered the remaining portion of the voyage, which was westward along the northern side of the land, an impossible course in the sea between Spitzbergen and Greenland! The fact of Gerard’s tract having been republished in De Bry’s Collection, which work is well known to literary men, while De Veer’s original journal has rarely, if ever, been consulted by them, is doubtless the reason why the circumnavigation of Spitzbergen by Barents and Rijp has hitherto remained unknown.

[181] Pages 248, 251.

[182] De Veer, p. 89, and the note there.

[183] De Veer, p. 99.

[184] Third Series, vol. v (1837–8), pp. 289–330.

[185] Pages 200–203.

[186] Page 147.

[187] Pages 147, 160, 298, etc.

[188] Page 266.

[189] De Veer, p. 11.

[190] Page 305.

[191] Page 12.

[192] Page 21.

[193] Page 306.

[194] Page 12.

[195] See page xc, ante.

[196] De Veer, page 13, note 1.

[197] Page 236.

[198] De Veer, p. 13.

[199] Ibid., p. 14.

[200] Ibid., p. 14.

[201] Ibid., p. 16.

[202] Page 306.

[203] Page 302.

[204] Pages 302–306.

[205] See pages 145–149 of the present work, and the notes there.

[206] It was not thought necessary to reproduce these charts for the present edition.

[207] De Veer, p. 20.

[208] Page 360.

[209] De Veer, p. 70.

[210] Ibid., p. 111.

[211] Ibid., p. 112.

[212] De Veer, p. 175.

[213] Ibid., p. 176.

[214] Ibid., p. 176.

[215] Page 37.

[216] Page 150.

[217] Page 152.

[218] Page 224.

[219] See Lütke, p. 39.

[220] This observation of Robert le Canu is anything but ingenuous. De Veer’s work, the body of which is in German characters, contains several other portions printed with Roman letters, for the sake of distinction on account of their importance; such as the Dedication, the story of the barnacles, etc.

[221] This sacristan was not quite so flexible as the “Clerke of the Bow bell”, immortalized in Stow’s Survey of London (edit. 1633, p. 269). His duty it was to ring the curfew-bell nightly at nine o’clock; and “this Bel being usually rung somewhat late, as seemed to the young men Prentises, and other in Cheape, they made and set up a rime against the Clerke, as followeth:

“Clarke of the Bow-Bell,
with the yellow locks,
For thy late ringing,
thy head shall have knockes.

“Whereunto the Clerke replying, wrote:

“Children of Cheape,
hold you all still,
For you shall have the
Bow-bell rung at your will.”

[222] Blaeu, Grand Atlas, part i, fol. 34, b.

[223] On this day De Veer says that they measured the sun’s azimuth (de son peijlden), which they found to be “in the eleventh degree and 48 minutes of Scorpio”, that is to say, in 221° 48′. It would seem, however, that there are here two mistakes. The first is a clerical or typographical error. Instead of 221° 48′, it should be 221° 18′, which was the sun’s longitude at Venice on the 3rd of November. And the second error is, that no account is taken of the difference of longitude between Venice and Novaya Zemlya, which is about four hours in time. The sun’s true longitude was 221° 7′,6.

[224] Namely, that of Captain Parry.

[225] “The 25th of January it was darke clowdy weather”; the 26th there was “a fog-bank or a dark cloud”; the 29th, “it was foule weather, with great store of snow”; the 30th, “it was darke weather with an east wind,” and “as soone as they saw what weather it was, they had no desire to goe abroad”; the 1st of February, “the house was closed up againe with snow”; the 2nd, “it was still the same foule weather”; the 3rd, it was “very misty, whereby they could not see the sun”; and from the 4th till the 7th inclusive, “it was still foule weather”.

[226] Some valuable remarks on this phenomenon are contained in Lütke’s Viermalige Reise, pp. 39–41.

[227] De Veer’s work has seen three editions—1598, 1599, and 1605, at the same press. The text, as well as the plates of the edition of 1599, are reprinted, whilst the pages are better numbered. (Mémoire Bibliographique sur les Journaux des Navigateurs Neerlandais 1867, par P. A. Fiele.)

[228] One further curious instance has only recently come to our knowledge. Captain Beechey, when speaking (p. 257) of the bears which were killed by the Dutch while in their winter quarters, says that on opening one of them “there was found in its stomach ‘part of a buck, with the hair and skinne and all, which not long before she had torne and devoured,’ a fact (he adds) which I mention only to rectify an error in supposing deer did not frequent Nova Zembla.”

Did the fact of the existence of deer in Novaya Zemlya rest upon this statement alone, it would have but a weak foundation; for, as is shown in page 182, note 3, the original Dutch is “stucken van robben, met huijt ende hayr”—“pieces of seals, with the skin and hair.” But, in truth, the existence of deer in that country is established by the incontrovertible evidence adduced in the notes to pages 5, 83, and 104; to which has to be added the fact recorded in the Appendix, p. 269, that when Hudson and his crew were on the coast of Novaya Zemlya in 1608, they saw there numerous signs of deer, and on one occasion “a herd of white deere of ten in a companie;” so that they actually gave to the place the name of Deere Point.

[229] 1.—“The Description of a Voyage made by certain Ships of Holland into the East Indies ... who set forth on the 2nd Aprill 1595, and returned on the 14th of August 1597. Printed by John Woolfe, 1598, 4to.”

In his dedication to this work, of which the original was written by Bernard Langhenes, Phillip announces a translation of Linschoten’s voyages; and in the same year there appeared—

2.—“John Huighen van Linschoten, his discours of voyages into ye Easte and West Indies. Devided into foure books. Printed at London by John Woolfe;” on the title-pages of the second, third, and fourth books of which work the initials W. P. are given as those of the translator.

In the advertisement to the reader in this latter work (copies of which have sold as high as £10 15s.), it is stated that the “Booke being commended by Maister Richard Hackluyt, a man that laboureth greatly to advance our English name and nation, the printer thought good to cause the same to be translated into the English tongue.”

3.—“The Relation of a wonderfull Voiage made by William Cornelison Schouten of Horne. Shewing how South from the Straights of Magellan in Terra del Fuego, he found and discovered a newe passage through the great South Sea, and that way sayled round about the World. Describing what Islands, Countries, People, and strange Adventures he found in his saide Passage. London, imprinted by T. D. for Nathaneell Newberry, 1619. 4to.”

This English edition is exceedingly rare.

[230] Namely, the United Provinces of the Netherlands.

[231] The Amsterdam Latin version of 1598 has “Columbus, Cortesius, et Magellanus”. But the emendation is unnecessary, since the author evidently intends Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, the discoverer of the Pacific.

[232] “Cicilia”, in the English original, can only be an error of the press.

[233] Deur ende weer deur de Linie—passing and repassing the Line.

[234] De witte Zee—the White Sea.

[235] The adverb of affirmation, now written ay. A striking instance of its use occurs in Romeo and Juliet:—

“Hath Romeo slaine himself? say thou but I,
And that bare vowell I shall poyson more
Than the death-darting eye of Cockatrice;
I am not I, if there be such an I.”

[236] Thus it appears that Gerrit de Veer was not on the first voyage, as has been supposed by some writers.

[237] By the Russians called Nóvaya Zémlya, i.e., “the New Land”.

[238] Namely, between Nóvaya Zémlya and Spitzbergen, which latter was, by Barentsz and his companions, thought to be a part of Greenland.

[239] The Sea of Kara, east of Nóvaya Zémlya.

[240] This country, which was discovered by the Hollanders on their third voyage, has since proved to be Spitzbergen.

[241] The same is repeated by Sir John Barrow (Chronological History of Voyages, etc., pp. 148, 185), who questions the fact asserted by Hudson, of his having seen reindeer in the island. But Lütke expressly declares (Viermalige Reise, etc., Erman’s Translation, pp. 43, 75, 314, 359), that these animals do exist in Nóvaya Zémlya, even beyond the 74th parallel of north latitude. See also Baer, in Berghaus’s Annalen, vol. xvii, p. 300; vol. xviii, p. 25.

[242] Intended.

[243] As is shown in the Introduction, the proper name of this able navigator is Willem Barentszoon, that is, William, the son of Barent or Bernard; which name, as usually contracted, was written Barentsz.

[244] May 29th, 1594.

[245] The island of Kildin, on the coast of Russian Lapland, in 69° 18′ north latitude, and 34° 20′ longitude east of Greenwich.

[246] Dutch or German miles of fifteen to the degree; so that one such mile is equal to four English sea miles, or geographical miles of sixty to the degree. To assist the reader, who might not always have this in mind, the English miles will throughout be inserted between brackets.