Part 7

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. [58] 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. [59] 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 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.” [60]

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 further they went that way, the more and thicker was the ice, so that they coulde goe no further.” [61]

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.” [62]

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”. [63] 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.” [64]

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. [65]

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.” [66]

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.” [67] 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 fleet under Cornelius Nai to turn back from somewhere about the same spot; [68] 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”. [69]

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 Burrough [70] (Stephen’s brother). Seven years afterwards, in 1560, he commanded the Jesus, of London, in the service of the Russia Company. [71] 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” [72] 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”, [73] 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”; [74] and, further, his voyage was deemed of sufficient importance to form the subject of a letter to Hakluyt himself from the learned Gerard Mercator. [75]

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. [76] 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. [77]

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:

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, [78] 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, [79] 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; but salmons [80] there are none. Not farre distant from the maine, at the mouth of Ob, there is an island, [81] 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 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. [82] 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 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. [83]

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.[83] 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 him [84] that the present name Matochkin Shar appears to be merely a corruption of Matyushin 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, [85] 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.

There can, further, be no doubt that Dr. Hamel is right in his conclusion,—indeed, it is self-evident from Marsh’s statement,—that towards the close of the sixteenth century, and previously to the time when the Dutch visited those parts, Novaya Zemlya was looked on as an island extending from Burrough’s Strait (Karskoi Vorota) as far northwards only as “Mattuschan Yar” (Matyushin Shar): and that the land lying to the north of this latter passage was not deemed to be a part of Novaya Zemlya, but had a distinct designation, namely, Matthew’s Land, which in Russian would be Matvyéeva Zemlya,—an expression which corresponds precisely with Marsh’s “Land of Matfeov (Matpheoue)”.

How this Matvyéeva Zemlya, together with Matyushin Shar, should have been lost from our maps, may be easily explained, though not altogether in the way attempted by Dr. Hamel. [86] The accompanying fac-simile of a map drawn by Isaac Massa, and published in 1612 by Hessel Gerard, in a small volume [87] now very rare, contains (as will be seen) a delineation of Novaya Zemlya, there shown as an island of not large extent, and the surrounding regions. The strongly marked entire line along the western side of Novaya Zemlya, is that of the coast as furnished to Massa by his Russian authorities: the faint dotted line is that of the coast as corrected by himself or Gerard from Dutch sources of information. The proper names, as written in strong and faint characters respectively, indicate, in like manner, the several sources from which such names were derived. In this map a broad channel is laid down between the island of Novaya Zemlya and a terra innominata to the north of it, to which channel is given the name of “Matsei of tsar”, which was evidently intended for “Matſeiof tsar”, which again must be taken to have been written instead of “Matfeiof tsar”, through a mere clerical error. [88] The faint dotted line along the west coast of Novaya Zemlya shows that it had been carefully and (considering the time when it was drawn) very accurately corrected; for we there see plainly laid down the Mezhdusharsky Ostrov and the two inlets—Kostin Shar and Podryesov Shar—between which that island lies, and from which it derives its appellation. [89]

Had the name Kostin Shar, in any of its chameleon forms, [90] been retained in its proper place, at the same time that the new name Matfeiof tsar was introduced to designate the more northerly channel,—and the map constructed by Gerrit de Veer from William Barents’s observations, does not warrant the former’s being carried much higher up than the 71st parallel,—there would most probably have been no occasion to notice this grave error. But the passage between Novaya Zemlya (Proper) and Matvyéeva Zemlya not having been observed by Barents and his companions, and De Veer having in his journal expressed the opinion that “Constinsarck” goes “through to the Tartarian Sea”, [91] the corrector of Massa’s map was led to suppose that this passage must be the same as the “Matfeiof tsar” of the Russians, and he accordingly placed over the latter the name “Costint sarch” in faint letters. That in subsequent maps the former name should have been omitted, and the latter alone retained, is only natural: it is the usual progress of error. Accordingly, in Gerard’s map of Russia, dedicated to the emperor Michael Fedorowich in 1614, [92] we find “Costint sarch” made to extend right across and through the land from west to east, its latitude being, however, brought down to nearly the same as in Gerrit de Veer’s map, from which the western coast-line of Novaya Zemlya is, in general, taken, while the more northerly passage is altogether lost sight of.

Still, the existence of this latter passage continued to be known more than a century later. For, in the year 1705, Witsen published in the second volume of his Noord en Oost Tartarye, a rough and, for the most part, very incorrect map of the Samoede country, obtained by him from Theunis (Antonis) Ys, the master of a trading vessel, who had visited Novaya Zemlya; in which map the southern portion of that country is represented as an island, cut off from the northern and far larger portion by a broad channel, running from north-west to south-east, and bearing the name of “Matiskin jar, of Mathys-stroom”; with respect to which channel Witsen remarks, [93] that “it is a passage and thoroughfare, and not an inlet or river”.

Notwithstanding the length of time during which the name has been lost, there does not appear to be any good reason why the original and correct designation of Matthew’s Strait, Matvyéeva Shar (“Matfeiof tsar”), or Matyushin Shar, should not be restored to the channel between the two islands, instead of its continuing to bear the modern corrupted form of the latter name, Matochkin Shar.