BY
CHARLES J. BEKE, Phil.D.
The three voyages undertaken by the Dutch, towards the close of the sixteenth century, with a view to the discovery of a north-east passage to China, are deservedly placed among the most remarkable exploits of that enterprising nation; while the ten months’ residence of the adventurous seamen at the furthest extremity of the inhospitable region of Novaya Zemlya, within little more than fourteen degrees of the North Pole, and their homeward voyage of upwards of seventeen hundred geographical miles in two small open boats, are events full of romantic interest.
The republication by the Hakluyt Society of the narrative of these three voyages, is most appropriate at this particular juncture, when public attention is so painfully absorbed by apprehensions as to the fate of Franklin and his companions. At all times would this work be read with interest, as giving in plain and simple language, which vouches for its truth, the first account of a forced winter residence in the Arctic Regions, patiently and resolutely endured and successfully terminated; but at the present moment it acquires a far deeper importance from its representation—faint, perhaps, and wholly inadequate to the reality—of the hardships which must have been undergone by our missing countrymen; happy if some of them shall have survived, like Gerrit de Veer, to tell the tale of their sufferings and of their final deliverance from their long captivity. [lxiv]
In adverting to the causes which led to these three expeditions, it would be quite superfluous to enter upon the general history of Arctic discovery. All that is requisite for the proper elucidation of the present subject, is an investigation of the actual state of our knowledge respecting the precise field of the labours of our Dutch navigators, previously to the date of their adventurous undertaking.
Three centuries have now elapsed since the first attempt was made to discover a north-east passage to China and India. The circumstances under which this took place, cannot be better detailed than in the words of Clement Adams, in his account of “the newe Nauigation and discouerie of the kingdome of Muscouia, by the north-east, in the yeere 1553”, which is printed by Hakluyt in the first volume of his Principal Navigations.
“At what time our marchants perceiued the commodities and wares of England to bee in small request with the countreys and people about vs and neere vnto vs, and that those marchandizes which strangers in the time and memorie of our auncesters did earnestly seeke and desire, were nowe neglected and the price thereof abated, although by vs carried to their owne portes, and all forreine marchandises in great accompt and their prises wonderfully raised: certaine graue citizens of London, and men of great wisedome, and carefull for the good of their countrey, began to thinke with themselves howe this mischiefe might be remedied. Neither was a remedie (as it then appeared) wanting to their desires, for the auoyding of so great an inconuenience: for, seeing that the wealth of the Spaniards and Portingales, by the discouerie and search of newe trades and countreys was marueilously increased, supposing the same to be a course and meane for them also to obteine the like, they thereupon resolued upon a newe and strange nauigation. And whereas at the same time one Sebastian Cabota,1 a man in those dayes very renowned, happened to bee in London, they began first of all to deale and consult diligently with him, and after much speech and conference together, it was at last concluded that three shippes should bee prepared and furnished [lxv]out, for the search and discouerie of the northerne part of the world, to open a way and passage to our men for trauaile to newe and vnknowen kingdomes.
“And whereas many things seemed necessary to bee regarded in this so hard and difficult a matter, they first make choyse of certaine graue and wise persons, in maner of a senate or companie, which should lay their heads together and giue their iudgements, and prouide things requisite and profitable for all occasions: by this companie it was thought expedient that a certaine summe of money should publiquely bee collected, to serue for the furnishing of so many shippes. And lest any priuate man should bee too much oppressed and charged, a course was taken, that euery man willing to be of the societie should disburse the portion of twentie and five pounds a piece; so that in short time by this meanes the summe of sixe thousand pounds being gathered, the three shippes were bought, the most part whereof they prouided to be newly built and trimmed.”2
The three vessels thus fitted out sailed in company from Ratcliff on the 10th of May, 1553. On their arrival at Harwich, they were detained there some time; “yet at the last with a good winde they hoysed vp saile, and committed themselues to the sea, giuing their last adieu to their natiue country, which they knewe not whether they should euer returne to see againe or not. Many of them looked oftentimes backe, and could not refraine from teares, considering into what hazards they were to fall, and what vncertainties of the sea they were to make triall of.”3
These gloomy forebodings were not long in finding their realization. In a violent tempest off the coast of Norway, two of the vessels, the Bona Esperanza and Bona Confidentia, in the former of which was Sir Hugh Willoughby, captain-general of the fleet, were driven far out to sea, and at length put into a small haven on the coast of Lapland, near the mouth of the river Warsina,4 where the entire crews of [lxvi]both vessels, amounting in all to seventy souls, miserably perished from cold and hunger.
Before meeting with his untimely end, Willoughby, on the 14th of August, “descried land, which land (he says, in a note found written in one of the two ships) we bare with all, hoising out our boat to discover what land it might be; but the boat could not come to land, the water was so shoale, where was very much ice also, but there was no similitude of habitation; and this land lyeth from Seynam5 east and by north 160 leagues, being in latitude 72 degrees. Then we plyed to the northward”.6 As the subject of Willoughby’s voyage has been discussed by Mr. Rundall in a recent publication of the Hakluyt Society,7 it is here unnecessary to say more than that, whatever may formerly have been the notions of geographers as to the coast reached by our hapless countryman, and to which the name of “Willoughby’s Land” was given, the almost universally received opinion now is8 that it was that portion of the western coast of Novaya Zemlya, which is called by Lütke the Goose Coast (Gänseufer in Erman’s Translation9),—doubtless from the numbers of water-fowl found there,—and of which the North and South Goose Capes (Syevernuy Gusinuy Muis and Yuzhnuy Gusinuy Muis) form the two extremities. Mr. Rundall is therefore fully justified in claiming for Sir Hugh Willoughby, as he so earnestly does in his work just cited,10 “the credit of having been the first Englishman by whom the coast of Novaya Zemlya was visited”; and as, further, Willoughby was not only the first Englishman, but also the first European, who had ever been there, the rule and usual practice in regard to new discoveries fairly warrants the application [lxvii]of the name of “Willoughby’s Land” to this “Goose Coast”, which our countryman was thus the first to visit and make known to us.
In thus attributing the discovery of Novaya Zemlya to Sir Hugh Willoughby, it is in no wise intended to deny that that island—or chain of islands, as it may be more correctly designated—was previously known to the inhabitants of the northern coasts of Russia. The name itself,—Novaya Zemlya, which in the Russian language signifies “the New Country” or “Newfoundland”,—and the fact that the early European navigators, both English and Dutch, who followed in Willoughby’s footsteps, met with native vessels on the coast, from the crews of which they learned their way and obtained various particulars of local information, are quite sufficient to establish the priority of the Russians.
Still, the discovery of a country, like any other discovery or invention in science or the arts, dates properly from the time when the knowledge of that discovery is first recorded and publicly communicated to the civilised world; and in this sense even the Russian admiral Lütke,11 the great explorer of Novaya Zemlya in modern times, does not hesitate to acknowledge, that, owing to the absence of all written records bearing on the subject, his countrymen cannot pretend to lay claim to the “discovery” of Novaya Zemlya.
Richard Chancellor, pilot-major of Willoughby’s fleet, was far more fortunate than his hapless chief. In the third vessel, the Edward Bonaventure, commanded by Stephen Burrough, he succeeded in entering the Bay of St. Nicholas, since better known as the White Sea, and on the 24th of August, 1553, reached in safety the western mouth of the river Dwina, whence he proceeded overland to the court of the Emperor of Muscovy or Russia, at Moscow. The result was the foundation of the commercial and political relations [lxviii]between England and Russia, which have subsisted, with but brief interruptions, till the present day.
Shortly after Chancellor had brought his section of Willoughby’s expedition to so successful an issue, the company of merchant-adventurers, by whom the three ships had been fitted out, received a charter of incorporation, bearing date February 6th, 1 and 2 Ph. and Mar. (1554–5); and subsequently, in the eighth year of Queen Elizabeth (1566), they obtained an Act of Parliament, in which they are styled “the Fellowship of English Merchants for Discovery of New Trades”; a title under which they still continue incorporated, though they are better known by the designation of the “Muscovy” or “Russia Company”.
It is not here the place to discuss the general proceedings of the Russia Company, important though they be, and highly deserving of being made the subject of special investigation. All that we have to do is to notice the expeditions which were undertaken under the auspices of that company, for the purpose of exploring the seas bounding the Russian Empire on the north, with a view to the discovery of a north-east passage to China.
Of these expeditions, the first was that of Stephen Burrough, who had in 1553 been the master of Richard Chancellor’s ship, the Edward Bonaventure, and who now, in 1556, was despatched in the pinnace Searchthrift to make discovery towards the river Ob.12
Leaving Gravesend on the 23rd of April of the latter year, Burrough, on the 23rd of May, passed the North Cape, which he had so named on his first voyage, and on the 9th of June reached Kola, where he fell in with several small Russian vessels (lodji), all “bound to Pechora, a fishing for salmons and morses”.13 The master of one of these boats, named Gabriel, rendered good service to Burrough, who is [lxix]diffuse in his praise of Gabriel’s conduct, as contrasted with that of other Russian seamen with whom he had to do.
In the company of these native boats Burrough passed by Svyátoi Nos, called by him Cape St. John; Kanin Nos (Caninoz); the island of Kolguev, by mistake called in his journal Dolgoieue; then the second Svyátoi Nos, and so to “the dangerous barre of Pechora”. Passing still onwards, he, on St. James’s day, July 25th, “spied certain islands”, lying to the south of Novaya Zemlya, under one of which he anchored, naming it “St. James his Island”,14 and making its latitude to be 70° 42′ N., which according to Lütke15 is about 10′ too far north. The next day they “plyed to the westwards alongst the shoare” of the southern extremity of Novaya Zemlya, where they met with another small native vessel, the master of which, named Loshak, told them that they were past the way which should bring them to the Ob;—that the land by which they were was “called Noua Zembla, that is to say, the New Land;”—and that “in this Noua Zembla is the highest mountaine in the worlde, as he thought, and that Camen Bolshay,16 which is on the maine of Pechora, is not to be compared to this mountaine; but” (adds Burrough cautiously) “I saw it not”.17
On the 31st of July, Burrough was “at an anker among the islands of Vaigats”; on one of which islands he went on shore the following day. On Monday, the 3rd of August, he continues: “We weyed and went roome with another island, which was five leagues east-north-east from us; and there I met againe with Loshak, and went on shore with him, and hee brought me to a heap of the Samoeds idols, which were in number aboue 300, the worst and the most unartificiall worke that ever I saw. The eyes and mouthes of sundrie of them were bloodie; they had the shape of men, [lxx]women, and children, very grosly wrought; and that which they had made for other parts was also sprinckled with blood. Some of their idols were an olde sticke, with two or three notches made with a knife in it. I saw much of the footing of the sayd Samoeds, and of the sleds that they ride in.”18
These particulars clearly prove that the spot thus described by Burrough is Bolvánovsky Nos (Image Cape), at the north-eastern extremity of the island of Vaigats, in 70° 29′ N. lat., which place, according to Lütke,19 was visited by Ivanov in 1824, and found to be in precisely the same state as represented by its English discoverer. There is a second cape of the same name at the south-eastern extremity of Vaigats Island, in 69° 40′ N. lat., which is the Afgodenhoeck (Idol Cape) of Linschoten and the Beeldthoeck (Image Cape) of De Veer, and which is described by the latter in his account of their second voyage, at pages 53 and 60 of the present volume. Lütke20 erroneously identifies this latter cape with the one discovered by Burrough; but this is evidently a mere oversight, as the two capes of the same name are distinctly laid down in his chart.
On the 5th of August, fearing to be hemmed in by the ice, which approached his ship in immense masses, Burrough returned westwards, and then southwards; and on the 22nd of the same month, on account of the north and north-easterly winds, the great quantity of ice, and the advanced season of the year, he determined on not attempting to proceed further to the east, but returned round Kanin Nos into the White Sea, and so to Kholmogorui (Colmogro), the Russian port on the Dwina previously to the foundation of Archangelsk,—Archangel, or Novo-Kholmogorui, as it was at first called,—where he arrived on the 11th of September.21
The passage by which Burrough thus sailed between [lxxi]Novaya Zemlya and Vaigats into the Sea of Kara, is that which by the Russians is called Karskoi Vorota—the Kara Gate or Strait; and as he was the first navigator who is recorded to have been there, he must be regarded as the “discoverer” of that Strait. And that he was so considered by his contemporaries is established by the fact, that, in the instructions given by the Russia Company, in 1580, to Pet and Jackman,22 that entrance into the Sea of Kara is actually denominated “Burrough’s Strait”.
For several years after Stephen Burrough’s voyage in the Searchthrift, the Russia Company appear to have directed their attention principally to the trade with the White Sea, and thence, overland, with the interior of the continent both in Europe and in Asia. Still, it must not be imagined that they at all abandoned the idea of a north-east passage to China. On the contrary, there is evidence in the instructions given by them on the fitting out of two expeditions, at intervals of twelve years each, that the subject was not lost sight of by them, and that they neglected no means of obtaining information, with a view to the eventual realisation of the scheme which was their principal object in the original formation of the company.
The former of these two expeditions was in the year 1568, when James Bassendine, James Woodcocke, and Richard Browne were appointed to undertake a voyage of discovery along the northern coast of Russia, “from the river Pechora to the eastwards”. Of this undertaking no memorial appears to be extant, except the “Commission” issued to the adventurers; so that it is impossible to say what its success was. But the instructions contained in that Commission are in themselves of so interesting a character, as showing in a precise and definite form the extent of the knowledge of the Arctic Ocean to the east of the White Sea, possessed by the English at a date mounting up to nearly three centuries [lxxii]from the present time, that no apology will be necessary for here reprinting it from the pages of Hakluyt.23 It must be premised that the date attributed by that author to this document is 1588; which is, however, clearly a misprint. For, in the first place, it was in 1568 (not 1588) that Thomas Randolph, by whom the Commission was signed only a few days after his arrival in Russia,24 was appointed ambassador to that country, he having in the following year returned to England;25 while in the year 1588 it was Dr. Giles Fletcher who was our ambassador.26 And, secondly, this Commission, though appearing to bear the latter date, is placed by Hakluyt in chronological order among the documents of the year 1568.
A Commission given by vs, Thomas Randolfe, ambassadour for the Queenes Maiestie in Russia, and Thomas Bannister, etc., vnto Iames Bassendine, Iames Woodcocke, and Richard Browne; the which Bassendine, Woodcocke, and Browne we appoint ioyntly together, and aiders the one of them to the other, in a voyage of discouery to be made (by the grace of God) by them, for searching of the sea and border of the coast, from the riuer Pechora to the eastwards, as hereafter followeth. Anno 1568, the first of August.
Imprimis, when your barke with all furniture is ready, you shall at the beginning of the yere (assoone as you possibly may) make your repaire to the easterne part of the riuer Pechora, where is an island called Dolgoieue, and from thence you shall passe to the eastwards alongst by the sea coast of Hugorie, or the maine land of Pechora; and sailing alongst by the same coast, you shall passe within seuen leagues of the island Vaigats, which is in the straight, almost halfe way from the coast of Hugorie unto the coast of Noua Zembla; which island Vaigats and Noua Zembla you shall finde [lxxiii]noted in your plat, therefore you shall not need to discouer it, but proceed on alongst the coast of Hugory towards the river Obba.
There is a bay betweene the sayd Vaigats and the river Obba, that doth bite to the southwards into the land of Hugory, in which bay are two small riuers, the one called Cara Reca, the other Naramsy, as in the paper of notes which are giuen to you herewith may appeare: in the which bay you shall not need to spend any time for searching of it, but to direct your course to the river Ob (if otherwise you be not constrained to keepe alongst the shore); and when you come to the river Ob, you shall not enter into it, but passe ouer into the easterne part of the mouth of the sayd riuer.
And when you are at the easterne part of the mouth of Obba Reca, you shall from thence passe to the eastwards, alongst by the border of the sayd coast, describing the same in such perfect order as you can best do it. You shall not leaue the sayd coast or border of the land, but passe alongst by it, at least in sight of the same, untill you haue sailed by it so farre to the eastwards, and the time of the yeere [be] so farre spent, that you doe thinke it time for you to returne with your barke to winter, which trauell may well be 300 or 400 leagues to the eastwards of the Ob, if the sea doe reach so farre, as our hope is it doth; but and if you finde not the said coast and sea to trend so farre to the eastwards, yet you shall not leaue the coast at any time, but proceed alongst by it, as it doth lie, leauing no part of it vnsearched or [un-]seene, unlesse it be some bay or river, that you doe certeinly know by the report of the people that you shall finde in those borders, or els some certeine tokens whereby you of your selues may iudge it to be so. For our hope is that the said border of land and sea doth, in short space after you passe the Ob, incline east, and so to the southwards. And therefore we would haue no part of the land of your starreboord side, as you proceed in your discouery, to be left vndiscouered.
But and if the said border of land do not incline so to the eastwards as we presuppose it, but that it doe proue to incline and trend to the northwards, and so ioyne with Noua Zembla, making the sea from Vaigats to the eastwarde but a bay; yet we will that you do keepe alongst by the said coast, and so bring us certaine report of that forme and maner of the same bay.
And if it doe so proue to be a bay, and that you have passed round about the same, and so by the trending of the land come backe vnto that part of Noua Zembla that is [lxxiv]against Vaigats, whereas you may from that see the said island Vaigats; if the time of the yeere will permit you, you shall from thence passe alongst by the said border and coast of Noua Zembla to the westwards, and so to search whether that part of Noua Zembla doe ioyne with the land that Sir Hugh Willoughbie discouered in anno ’53, and is in 72 degrees and from that part of Noua Zembla 120 leagues to the westwards,27 as your plat doeth shew it unto you; and if you doe finde that land to ioyne with Noua Zembla, when you come to it, you shall proceed further along the same coast, if the time of the yere will permit it, and that you doe thinke there will be sufficient time for you to returne back with your barke to winter, either at Pechora or in Russia, at your discretion; for we refer the same to your good iudgements, trusting that you will lose no time that may further your knowledge in this voyage.
Note you, it was the 20 of August, ’56, yer28 the Serchthrift began to returne backe from her discouerie, to winter in Russia; and then she came from the island Vaigats, being forcibly driuen from thence with an easterly winde and yce, and so she came into the riuer Dwina, and arriued at Colmogro the 11 of September, ’56. If the yce had not bene so much that yere as it was in the streights on both sides of the island Vaigats, they in the said pinnesse would that yeere haue discouered the parts that you are now sent to seeke; which thing (if it had pleased God) might haue bene done then; but God hath reserued it for some other. Which discouerie, if it may be made by you, it shall not only proue profitable vnto you, but it will also purchase perpetuall fame and renowne both to you and our countrey. And thus, not doubting of your willing desires and forwardnesse towards the same, we pray God to blesse you with a lucky beginning, fortunate successe, and happily to end the same. Amen.
As has already been stated, the results of this expedition are not known. We may, therefore, pass to the consideration of the voyage of Arthur Pet and Charles Jackman in the [lxxv]year 1580. For this undertaking written instructions were in like manner given by the Russia Company, which have also been preserved by Hakluyt.29 But as these instructions correspond in many respects with those given to Bassendine and his companions, it is here unnecessary to cite more from them than some few passages requiring particular notice.
The Commission from the Russia Company to Pet and Jackman was “for a voyage by them to be made, by God’s grace, for search and discoueries of a passage by sea by Borough’s Streights and the island Vaigats, eastwards to the countries or dominions of the mightie prince, the emperour of Cathay, and in the same unto the cities of Cambalu and Quinsay, or to either of them”. And for that purpose they were directed to “saile from this river of Thames to the coast of Finmarke, to the North Cape there, or to the Wardhouse”; and from thence, continued their instructions, “direct your course to haue sight of Willoughbies Land, and from it passe alongst to the Noua Zemla, keeping the same landes alwayes in your sight on your larboord sides (if conueniently you may), to the ende you may discouer whether the same Willoughbies Land be continent and firme land with Noua Zemla or not; notwithstanding we would not haue you to entangle your selues in any bay, or otherwise, so that it might hinder your speedy proceeding to the Island Vaigats.
“And when you come to Vaigats, we would haue you to get sight of the maine land of Samoeda, which is ouer against the south part of the same island, and from thence, with God’s permission, to passe eastwards alongst the same coast, keeping it alwayes in your sight (if conueniently you may) untill you come to the mouth of the riuer Ob: and when you come unto it, passe ouer the said riuers mouth unto the border of land on the east side of the same (without any [lxxvi]stay to bee made for searching inwardly in the same riuer), and being in sight of the same easterly land, doe you, in Gods name, proceed alongst by it from thence eastwards, keeping the same alwayes on your starboord side in sight, if you may, and follow the tract of it, whether it incline southerly or northerly (as at times it may do both), untill you come to the country of Cathay, or the dominion of that mightie emperour.”30 But in case they should not be able to reach Cathay, they were directed to attempt to ascend the river Ob; and if they should not succeed in this, they were then to “returne backe through Boroughs Streights”, and “discouer and trie whether Willoughbies Land ioyne continent with Noua Zembla or not”.31
In pursuance of these instructions, Pet and Jackman sailed from Harwich on the 31st of May, 1580, in two small barks: namely, the George, of the burthen of forty tons, under the command of the former, with a crew of nine men and a boy, and the William, of twenty tons, commanded by the latter, with a crew of five men and a boy. On June 23rd they reached Wardhuus, which place they left in company on the 1st of the following month. On the next day, however, as the William seemed “to be out of trie and sailed very ill”, she “was willing to goe with Kegor”, where she might mend her steerage; “whereupon Master Pet, not willing to go into harborough, said to Master Jackman that if he thought himselfe not able to keepe the sea, he should doe as he thought best, and that he in the meane time would beare with Willoughbies Land, for that it was a parcel of our direction, and would meete him at Veroue Ostroue, or Vaigats”.32
The name of Veroue Ostroue, here given to the island of Vaigats, does not occur elsewhere. It is manifestly Russian; though it is difficult to say what is its correct form, and consequently [lxxvii]what its signification. As to the designation by which that island is generally known, Witsen states, though without further explanation, that it was acquired from one Iwan or Ian Waigats;33 in commenting on which statement, Lütke says that the name should properly be written Waigatsch, the Russian termination tsch having been changed by the Dutch into tz, in the same way as in Pitzora for Petschora, etc.34 The correctness of this criticism is, however, questionable. For, long before the Dutch visited or knew anything of these parts, we find Englishmen,—who certainly had no difficulty in pronouncing the sound ch (tsch), which is common to our language, and who in fact always wrote Pechora (Petschora), and not, like the Dutch, Pitzora,—invariably writing not Vaigach (Vaigatsch), but Vaigats or Vaygatz. It is therefore reasonable to conclude that Vaigats is the original pronunciation of the name, and that the Russian form is merely a corruption.
But to return to Pet, who after parting from Jackman continued his course eastwards, apparently following in Willoughby’s track, till, on the 4th of July, he saw land in latitude 71° 38′ north, being the coast of Novaya Zemlya, somewhere about the South Goose Cape. Thence he coasted along the south-western end of Novaya Zemlya, keeping the same in sight on the larboard side, as instructed to do, but not nearing it, on account of ice and fog.35 On the 10th of July, he approached the north-western extremity of Vaigatz Island, and landed on a small island near the coast, where he took in wood and water.36 Here he remained till the 14th, when he got out with difficulty on account of the ice, and “lay along the coast north-west, thinking it to be an island; but finding no end in rowing so long”, he “supposed it to be the maine of Noua Zembla”, in which, however, he was in error, and thereby missed the entrance into the Sea of [lxxviii]Kara by Burrough’s Strait. He now altered his course, and on the 15th “lay south south-west with a flawne sheete, and so ranne all the same day”; and, after meeting with much more ice, he on the 17th came into the “Bay of Pechora”. Thence, again taking an eastward course, he on the 18th had sight of the southern extremity of Vaigatz, and on the following day entered the passage running between that portion of the island and the main land of the Samoede country; to which passage the Dutch, in the voyages which form the subject of the following pages, gave the name of “the Straits of Nassau”, and which the Russians call Yugorsky Schar, that is to say, the Ugorian Strait. Nevertheless, if the first European explorer on record be entitled to the credit of his discovery, this entrance into the Sea of Kara ought to bear the name of “Pet’s Strait,” in like manner as the passage into that sea at the other extremity of Vaigatz Island received the name of “Burrough’s Strait”.
From the 19th till the 24th of July, Pet endeavoured to make his way eastwards in accordance with his instructions, by keeping “the maine land of Samoeda” always in sight on his starboard side, but was constantly impeded by the ice. At length he was “constrained to put into the ice, to seeke some way to get to the northwards of it, hoping to haue some cleare passage that way, but there was nothing but whole ice.”37
Meanwhile, Jackman and his crew of five men and a boy, in their frail bark of twenty tons, had gallantly followed after the George, and on the morning of the 25th July the two vessels again joined company, the William being, however, in so disabled a state when she reached her companion, as to require assistance from the latter. The two vessels now “set saile to the northwardes, to seeke if they could finde any way cleare to passe to the eastward; but the [lxxix]further they went that way, the more and thicker was the ice, so that they coulde goe no further.”38
At length, seeing the impossibility of advancing either to the east or to the north, on the 28th of July “Master Pet and Master Jackman did conferre together what was best to be done, considering that the windes were good for us, and we not able to passe for ice: they did agree to seeke to the land againe, and so to Vaygatz, and then to conferre further. At 3 in the afternoone, we did warpe from one piece of ice to another, to get from them if it were possible: here were pieces of ice so great that we could not see beyond them out of the toppe.”39
It was only with the greatest difficulty and peril that they occasionally made their way through the ice, in which for the most part they remained so enclosed “that they could not stirre, labouring onely to defend the yce as it came upon them”; but at length, on the 15th of August, “they entred into a cleare sea without yce, whereof they were most glad, and not without cause, and gave God the praise”.40 On the day after, they say, “we were troubled againe with ice, but we made great shift with it: for we gotte betweene the shoare and it. This day, at twelue of the clocke, we were thwart of the south-east part of Vaigats, all along which part there was great store of yce, so that we stood in doubt of passage; yet by much adoe we got betwixt the shoare and it.”41
They now bore away to the west, passing by the island of Kolguev (Colgoyeue), on the sands to the south of which both vessels went aground, on August 20th, in latitude 68° 40′ N., according to their calculation. Getting off, they proceeded together on their return voyage; but, only two days afterwards, Pet’s vessel parted from the William, and saw her no more.42 [lxxx]
Arthur Pet, in the George, reached home in safety, arriving at Ratcliff on the 26th December following; but “the William, with Charles Jackman, arrived at a port in Norway between Tronden and Rostock in October 1580, and there did winter. And from thence departed againe in Februarie following, and went in company of a ship of the King of Denmarke toward Island; and since that time he was never heard of.”43
This voyage of Pet and Jackman has been noticed more in detail than might otherwise have been necessary, for the purpose of defending those able seamen from the animadversions of a recent historian, who says: “From the meagre narrative of this voyage it is sufficiently evident that Pet and Jackman were but indifferent navigators, and that they never trusted themselves from the shore and out of shallow water, whenever the ice would suffer them to approach it; a situation of all others, where they might have made themselves certain of being hampered with ice.”44 It will, however, in the first place, have been seen that their express instructions were that they should follow the line of the Siberian coast, keeping it always in sight on their starboard side, which instructions they appear to have obeyed to the utmost of their ability. And, secondly, it was not so much the fixed ice along the coast which impeded their progress, as the immense masses of floating ice from the Polar Basin which had drifted into the Sea of Kara; for, on more than one occasion, it was precisely by getting into the shallow water, “between the shore and the ice”, that they were enabled to effect a passage, which in deeper water, where the ice-masses could float, was denied to them. The fact is that it was from no want of either knowledge or skill that they were unsuccessful, but from the like unsurmountable natural causes which, fifteen years later, compelled the Dutch [lxxxi]fleet under Cornelius Nai to turn back from somewhere about the same spot;45 and, as Captain Beechey justly observes, “to this day the hardy Russians have not been able to survey the eastern side of Nova Zembla; and the ships which passed through the Waigatz Strait have never been able to proceed far, owing to the quantity of ice driven into the Sea of Kara”.46
Further, when it is considered who these experienced seamen were, it will at once be manifest that under no circumstances ought they to be stigmatised as “indifferent navigators”. Arthur Pet was with Richard Chancellor and Stephen Burrough in the Edward Bonaventure, on their first voyage to the Bay of St. Nicholas in 1553, his name standing in the list of “mariners” sixth before that of William Burrough47 (Stephen’s brother). Seven years afterwards, in 1560, he commanded the Jesus, of London, in the service of the Russia Company.48 And now, twenty years later, in the year 1580, a convincing proof is afforded of the estimation in which he was held, by the interest taken in him and his expedition by several of the most distinguished navigators and cosmographers of his time. For, in addition to his Commission from his employers, in whose service he had been seven-and-twenty years,—whether constantly or not is immaterial,—he received “Instructions and Notes”49 from “Master William Burrough”, Comptroller of the Navy, who had been his messmate seven-and-twenty years before, together with “Certaine briefe aduices giuen by Master Dee”,50 as also “Notes in writing, besides more priuie by mouth, that were giuen by M. Richard Hakluyt, of Eiton, in the countie of Hereford, esquire”;51 and, further, his voyage [lxxxii]was deemed of sufficient importance to form the subject of a letter to Hakluyt himself from the learned Gerard Mercator.52
Of Charles Jackman we do not know so much. Yet he, too, had clearly had experience in Arctic exploration, having been “the mate” on board the Ayde, one of the vessels of Frobisher’s second expedition, when he was of sufficient importance to give his name to “Jackman’s Sound”, on the south side of Frobisher’s Strait.53 And it is not without significance that in all the documents above cited, except Mercator’s letter to Hakluyt, his name is coupled, without any distinction, with that of so old and experienced a navigator of the Russian Seas as Arthur Pet.
Notwithstanding the failure of Pet and Jackman’s undertaking, the Russia Company appear to have in no wise relaxed in their endeavours to effect a passage by sea along the northern coast of the Russian dominions. And that they were, to a considerable extent, successful in their exertions, is proved by the following two documents, which have been preserved to us by Purchas.54
Notes concerning the discouery of the river of Ob, taken out of a Roll written in the Russian tongue, which was attempted by the meanes of Antonie Marsh, a chiefe Factor for the Moscouie Company of England, 1584, with other Notes of the North-east.
First, he wrote a letter from the citie of Mosco, in the year 7092, after the Russe accompt, which after our accompt was in the yeare 1584, unto foure Russes, that vsed to trade from Colmogro to Pechora and other parts eastward; whose answer was: [lxxxiii]
By writings receiued from thee, as also by reports, wee vnderstand thou wouldest have us seeke out the mouth of the riuer Ob; which we are content to doe, and thou must giue therefore fiftie rubbles: it is requisite to goe to seeke it out with two cochimaes or companies,55 and each cochima must haue ten men; and wee must goe by the riuer Pechora vpwards in the spring, by the side of the ice, as the ice swimmeth in the riuer, which will aske a fortnights time; and then we must fall into Ouson riuer, and fall downe with the streame before we come to Ob, a day and a night in the spring. Then it will hold vs eight dayes to swimme downe the riuer Ob, before we come to the mouth: therefore send vs a man that can write; and assure thy selfe the mouth of Ob is deepe. On the Russe side of Ob soiourne Samoeds, called Vgorskai and Sibierskie Samoeds; and on the other side dwel another kind of Samoeds, called Monganet or Mongaseisky Samoeds. We must passe by fiue castles that stand on the riuer of Ob. The name of the first is Tesuoi-gorodok, which standeth vpon the mouth of the riuer Padou. The second small castle is Nosoro-gorodock, and it standeth hard vpon the side of Ob. The third is called Necheiourgoskoy. The fourth is Charedmada. The fift is Nadesneàa, that is to say, the castle of Comfort or Trust,56 and it standeth vpon the riuer Ob, lowermost of all the former castles toward the sea.
Heretofore your people haue bin at the said riuer of Obs mouth with a ship, and there was made shipwracke, and your people were slaine by the Samoeds, which thought that they came to rob and subdue them. The trees that grow by the riuer are firres, and a kinde of white, soft, and light firre, which we call yell. The bankes on both sides are very high, and the water not swift, but still and deepe. Fish there are in it, as sturgeons, and cheri, and pidle, and nelma, a dainty fish like white salmons, and moucoun, and sigi, and sterlidi; [lxxxiv]but salmons57 there are none. Not farre distant from the maine, at the mouth of Ob, there is an island,58 whereon resort many wilde beasts, as white beares, and the morses, and such like. And the Samoeds tell vs, that in the winter season they oftentimes finde there morses teeth. If you would haue us trauell to seeke out the mouth of Ob by sea, we must goe by the isles of Vaygats and Noua Zembla, and by the land of Matpheoue, that is, by Matthewes Land. And assure thy selfe, that from Vaygats to the mouth of Ob by sea, is but a small matter to sayle. Written at Pechora, the yeare 7092, the twenty one of February.
Master Marsh also learned these distances of Places and Ports from Caninos to Ob by sea.
From Caninos to the Bay of Medemske (which is somewhat to the east of the riuer Pechora) is seuen days sayling. The bay of Medemsky is ouer a day and a halfe sayling. From Medemske Sauorost to Carareca is sixe dayes sayling. From Carska Bay to the farthest side of the riuer Ob is nine dayes sayling. The Bay of Carska is from side to side a day and a nights sayling.
He learned another way by Noua Zembla and Matthuschan Yar to Ob more north-eastward. From Caninos to the iland of Colgoieue is a day and a nights sayling. From Colgoieue to Noua Zembla are two dayes sayling. There is a great osera or lake vpon Noua Zembla, where wonderfull store of geese and swannes doe breede, and in moulting time cast their feathers, which is about Saint Peters day; and the Russes of Colmogro repaire thither yearely, and our English men venture thither with them seuerall shares in money: they bring home great quantitie of doune-feathers, dried swannes and geese, beares skinnes, and fish, etc. From Naromske reca or riuer to Mattuschan Yar is sixe dayes sayling. From Mattuschan Yar to the Perouologi Teupla, that is to say, to the warme passage ouer-land, compassing or sayling round about the sands, is thirteene dayes sayling. And there is upon the sands, at a full sea, seuen fathomes water, and two fathomes at a low water. The occasion of this highing of [lxxxv]the water, is the falling into the sea of the three riuers, and the meeting of the two seas, to wit, the North Sea and the East Sea, which make both high water and great sands. And you must beware that you come not with your shippe near vnto the iland by the riuer Ob.59 From Mattuschan Yar to this iland is fiue dayes sayling. Mattushan Yar is in some part fortie versts ouer, and in some parts not past six versts ouer.
The aforesaid Anthonie Marsh sent one Bodan, his man, a Russe borne, with the aforesaid foure Russes and a yong youth, a Samoed, which was likewise his seruant, vpon the discouery of the riuer of Ob by land, through the countrie of the Samoeds, with good store of commodities to trafficke with the people. And these his seruents made a rich voyage of it, and had bartered with the people about the riuer of Ob for the valew of a thousand rubles in sables and other fine furres. But the emperour hauing intelligence of this discouery, and of the way that Bodan returned home by, by one of his chiefe officers lay in waite for him, apprehended him, and tooke from him the aforesaid thousand markes worth of sables and other merchandises and deliuered them into the emperours treasurie, being sealed vp, and brought the poore fellow Bodan to the citie of Mosco, where he was committed to prison and whipped, and there detained a long while after, but in the end released. Moreouer, the emperours officers asked Anthonie Marsh how he durst presume to deale in any such enterprise. To whom he answered, that, by the priuileges granted to the English nation, no part of the emperours dominions were exempted from the English to trade and trafficke in: with which answere they were not so satisfied, but that they gaue him a great checke, and forfeited all the aforesaid thousand markes worth of goods, charging him not to proceede any further in that action: whereby it seemeth they are very iealous that any Christian should grow acquainted with their neighbours that border to the north-east of their dominions; for that there is some great secret that way, which they would reserue to themselves onely. Thus much I vnderstood by Master Christopher Holmes.
From these documents we gather two very remarkable facts. The first is, that, previously to the year 1584, an English vessel had crossed the Sea of Kara, and penetrated as far eastward as the mouth of the river Ob, where it [lxxxvi]was wrecked and its crew were murdered by the natives. The second is, that, at that time, the best way from the White Sea and the mouth of the Pechora by sea was deemed to be “by the isles of Vaygats and Nouva Zembla, and by the Land of Matpheoue, that is, by Matthewes Land”; this being manifestly the same as that which is described as “another way by Noua Zembla and Mattuschan Yar to Ob, more north-eastward” than that along the Russian coast, by Kanin Nos, the mouth of the Pechora, and thence through Yugorsky Shar (“Pet’s Strait”) and across the Gulf of Kara. And there can be no question that we have here a record of the discovery of the entrance into the Sea of Kara by the strait, at present known by the name of Matochkin Shar, in which the Russian pilot Rosmuislov passed the winter of 1768–1769, and through which he penetrated into that sea, though prevented by the ice from proceeding far from the eastern coast of Novaya Zemlya.60
The singular description thus given by Marsh of this passage through “Mattuschan Yar”, between Novaya Zemlya and “the Land of Matfeov (Matpheoue)”, does not appear to have been hitherto noticed by any writer except Dr. Hamel.60 Unfortunately, that author, through what would seem to be a systematic omission of all particular reference to his sources of information, has rendered his work of little value as an authority; inasmuch as, without having the means of appeal to the originals, it is impossible to discriminate between the facts and opinions gathered by him from others, and the conclusions, or sometimes mere hypotheses, based by himself on such information.
On the present occasion, however, having the original statements of Anthony Marsh before us, we can have no hesitation in availing ourselves of Dr. Hamel’s comments on the same, and in agreeing with him61 that the present name Matochkin Shar appears to be merely a corruption of Matyushin [lxxxvii]Shar; Matyusha itself being the diminutive of the Russian proper-name Matvei, or Matthew, which name was probably that of the first discoverer of this passage. It would also seem that the expression “Mattuschan Yar”, made use of by Anthony Marsh, is intended for this Matyushin Shar, and not, as Dr. Hamel supposes,62 for the coast (yar?) lying opposite to Novaya Zemlya; and that the breadth attributed by Marsh to “Mattuschan Yar”, of “in some parts forty versts over, and in some parts not past six versts over”, is meant to apply to the supposed breadth of the passage itself.