Part 9

It is not, however, to be imagined that the Netherlanders—we can scarcely speak of the “Dutch” at the earliest period to which we are now adverting—had no previous connexion with the northern coasts of Russia, though it is true that that connexion was then but of recent date. For, as is stated by Edge, the English Russia Company having “made their first discoverie in the yeere 1553, there was neuer heard of any Netherlander that frequented those seas vntil the yeere 1578. At which time they first began to come to Cola, and within a yeere or two after, one Iohn de Whale [de Walle], a Netherlander, came to the Bay of Saint Nicholas, being drawne thither by the perswasion of some English, for their better meane of interloping; which was the first man of that nation that euer was seene there.” [116] It was this same John de Walle, who was afterwards present at the coronation of the Emperor Fedor Ivanovich, at Moscow, on the 10th of June, 1584, when he had a dispute with Jerome Horsey, the English ambassador, as to precedency, which was decided by the emperor in favour of the latter. He is described by Horsey as “a famous merchant of Netherland, being newly come to Mosco, who gaue himselfe out to be the king of Spaines subiect.” [117]

It is unnecessary, for the consideration of the subject before us, to enter into any details respecting the commercial and political relations with Russia of the Netherlanders generally, in the first instance, and eventually of the natives of the United Provinces—commonly, though not very correctly, called the Dutch—in particular. It is sufficient to remark, that after their first entrance into the White Sea, they soon became powerful rivals of the English in the trade with Russia, and that it was also not long before their attention was directed to the extension of their commerce to the eastward of that country, and to the endeavour to reach China and the Indian Seas by a passage to the north-east.

Among the earliest and most eminent Dutch merchants trading to the White Sea, was Balthazar Moucheron, of the town of Middelburg, in Zeelandt. He it was, who, in the year 1593, in conjunction with Jacob Valck, treasurer of the same town, and Dr. Francis Maelson, of Enkhuysen, syndic of West Friesland, conceived the project of fitting out two fly-boats (vlyboots), each of between fifty and sixty lasts, or about one hundred tons, burthen, armed and provisioned for eight months, being one from each of those towns, to attempt a voyage to China and India by the way of the Northern Ocean. In this enterprise they were assisted by the courts of admiralty of those two provinces, having first obtained the necessary permission from the higher authorities. [118]

The two vessels thus fitted up were the Swan (Swane), [119] of Ter Veere, in Zeelandt, under the command of Cornelis Corneliszoon Nai (or Nay), a burgher of Enkhuysen, who had for some years been a pilot or master of a merchantman in the Russian trade, in Moucheron’s service, and was well acquainted with the northern coasts of Europe; having with him, as under-pilot or mate, Pieter Dirckszoon Strickbolle, also of Enkhuysen, and, like Nai, in the service of Moucheron. The other vessel was the Mercury (Mercurius), of Enkhuysen, under the command of Brant Ysbrantszoon, otherwise Brant Tetgales, a skilful and experienced seaman, with Claes Corneliszoon as his mate or under-pilot; both being likewise natives of Enkhuysen. As supercargo and interpreter on board the Swan went François de la Dale, a relative of Moucheron, who had resided several years in Russia, and as additional interpreter, “Meester” Christoffel Splindler, a Slavonian by birth, who had studied in the university of Leyden; while on board the Mercury the supercargo was John Hugh van Linschoten, [120] who was likewise engaged to keep a journal of their proceedings.

This movement on the part of the merchants of Middelburg and Enkhuysen had the effect of inducing those of Amsterdam to desire to participate in the enterprise, or, it should rather be said, to undertake one on their own account, having the same general object in view, but adopting a somewhat different mode of carrying it out. Instead of attempting a way to China by passing between Novaya Zemlya and the Russian continent, the Amsterdammers, at the instance of the celebrated cosmographer and astronomer, Peter Plancius, decided on sending their vessel round to the north of Novaya Zemlya, as offering a far easier and preferable route. This difference of opinion between the promoters of the two parts of the first expedition must be borne in mind, as explaining several circumstances which, in the course of our subsequent narrative, will have to be adverted to. A third vessel was accordingly fitted out by the merchants of Amsterdam, aided by the court of admiralty there. It was of the same size and character as the other two, and like Tetgales’s vessel was named the Mercury (Mercurius); [121] its command being entrusted to William Barents, [122] who took with him also a fishing-boat belonging to Ter Schelling. [123]

Before proceeding further, a few words must be said respecting the individual whose name has become inseparably associated with the three memorable expeditions, of which the first is now under consideration.

Willem Barentszoon—that is to say, William, the son of Barent or Bernard—was a native of Ter Schelling, an island belonging to the province of Friesland, and lying to the north-east of Vlieland or ’tVlie. He was also a burgher of Amsterdam. Of his family and early life no particulars have been handed down to us. But that he was not of any considerable family is manifest from his having, like most of his countrymen in the lower, or even the middle ranks of life, no other surname than the patronymic, Barents-zoon. He possessed, however, a good, if not a learned education, as is proved by the translation made by him from the High Dutch into his native tongue of the “Treatise of Iver Boty, a Gronlander,” which together with a note written by him on the tides in the Sea of Kara, was found by Purchas “amongst Master Hakluyt’s paper,” and preserved by him, and which, following that laborious collector’s example, we have “thought good to adde hither for Barents or Barentsons sake.” [124] He appears also to have written the narrative of the first voyage, which was published by Gerrit de Veer, and of which a translation is given in the present volume. Nothing to that effect is stated by De Veer; but as the latter did not go on that voyage, he must necessarily have obtained the particulars of it from some one who did, and from Linschoten’s statement [125] it may be inferred that this was Barents himself.

But whatever may have been Barents’s general education, it is unquestionable that he was a man of considerable capacity and talent, and that as a seaman he was possessed of far more than ordinary acquirements. By Linschoten he is described as having great knowledge of the science of navigation, and as being a practical seaman of much experience and ability; his astronomical observations have stood the severest tests of modern science; while his feats of seamanship will bear comparison with those of the ablest and most daring of our modern navigators. Of his great determination, perseverance, and indomitable courage, some remarkable instances will be adduced; and that his personal character, and general conduct, were such as to secure to him the respect, confidence, and attachment of those who sailed with him, is clearly manifest from various expressions in Gerrit de Veer’s simple narrative, and from its tone throughout.

The name of this able navigator has been written in various ways. The Dutch usually have Barentsz., which has been adopted in the notes on Phillip’s text in the present volume, it being the usual native contraction of the full name, Barentszoon. In the Amsterdam Latin and French versions of De Veer’s work, the name is translated “filius Bernardi,” and “fils de Bernard”. Purchas and other early English writers, have Barents or Barentson, and sometimes even Bernardson. The first of these forms—namely, Barents—is most conformable to the genius of our language (in which we have Williams and Williamson, Richards and Richardson, etc.), at the same time that it accords with that of the Dutch, in which language this form of name is not uncommon. Barentz and Barentzen, as it has not unfrequently been written, are incorrect.

On the 4th of June, 1594, the little fleet lying off Huysdunen, by the Texel, the commander of the Swan, Cornelis Nai, was named admiral or commodore, and an agreement made [126] that they should keep company as far as Kildin, on the coast of Lapland. On the following morning, being Sunday, the admiral set sail, commanding the others to follow; but as the Amsterdammers said they were not quite ready, they remained behind, though, as appears from their journal, [127] they too sailed in the course of the same day. On the 21st, the Mercury of Enkhuysen arrived at Kildin, on the 22nd, the Swan, and on the 23rd, Barents’ two vessels. On the 29th of the same month Barents left Kildin on his separate voyage to Novaya Zemlya, arranging with the others that, in case they should not meet beyond that country, but should have to return, they would wait for one another at Kildin till the end of September. On the 2nd of July the ships of Nai and Tetgales took their departure for Vaigats.

For want of taking a comprehensive view of this, and the subsequent voyages in which Barents was engaged, most writers on the subject have fallen into considerable error. By some the two expeditions of Nai and Barents have been treated as totally distinct; while by others Barents has been regarded as the chief commander of the whole. Thus, Blaeu, in the first part of his Grand Atlas, [128] published at Amsterdam in 1667, speaks of this expedition in the following terms:—“Dans cette grande entreprise, la ville d’Amsterdam, aujourd’huy la plus puissante des sept Provinces unies, se porta des premières, et fournit deux vaisseaux, qui furent accompagnez d’un troisiesme de Zelande et d’un quatrième d’Enchuse, tous quatre excellemment equippez, et qui eurent pour principal gouverneur et pilote tres-expert Guillaume fils de Bernard.” It would be a mere loss of time to refer to what other writers have said on the subject.

The voyage of William Barents in the Mercury of Amsterdam, forms the subject of the “First Part” of the present volume. Without entering here into any needless repetition of the particulars of this voyage, it shall be merely remarked that on the 4th of July, Barents first came in sight of Novaya Zemlya in 73° 25′ N. lat., near a low projecting point, called by him Langenes, whence he proceeded northwards along the coast, till, on the 10th of the same month, he passed Cape Nassau. [129] Thus far he had met with no obstacle to his progress. But during the night of the 13th he fell in with immense quantities of ice, and here his difficulties began. After vainly endeavouring to make his way through the ice, he, on the 19th of the month, found himself again close to the land about Cape Nassau. [130] Nothing daunted, he once more struggled forwards, and at length, on the last day of July, reached the Islands of Orange. Here, “after he had taken all that paine, and finding that he could hardly get through to accomplish and ende his intended voyage, his men also beginning to bee weary and would saile no further, they all together agreed to returne back againe.” [131] On the following day, therefore, they commenced their homeward voyage, and on the 3rd of August they reached Cape Nassau.

From a perusal of the mere dry details of their various courses in this part of their voyage, which are nearly all that is recorded in their journal, no idea could be formed of the difficulties they had to contend with, or the amount of labour actually performed. It is only when their track is laid down on the map,—as it has been, most carefully and with all possible accuracy, by Mr. Augustus Petermann,—that their enormous exertions become apparent. The result is really astonishing. Their voyage from Cape Nassau to the Orange islands and back occupied them from the 10th of July till the 3rd of August, being twenty-five days. During this period, Barents put his ship about eighty-one times, and sailed 1,546 geographical miles, according to the distances noted in the journal; to which, however, must be added the courses sailed along the coast, and also those which in some instances have been omitted to be specified, so that it may be reasonably assumed that the entire distance gone over was not much (if anything) short of 1,700 miles. This is equal to the distance from the Thames to the northern extremity of Spitzbergen, or from Cape Nassau to Cape Yakan, not far from Bering’s Strait. And all this was performed in a vessel of one hundred tons’ burthen, accompanied by a fishing smack!

One remarkable fact must not be omitted to be mentioned. On laying down Barents’s track from the bearings and distances given in his journal, from the 10th to the 19th of July, being the interval between his passing Cape Nassau, and being driven back again to that point,—during which period he tacked about in numerous directions, and sailed more than six hundred miles,—Mr. Petermann found it to agree so accurately, that its termination fell precisely upon Cape Nassau, without any difference whatever. This extreme precision can hardly be regarded as anything but a singular coincidence. Nevertheless, when viewed in connexion with Barents’s other tracks, and with his observations generally, as tested by the recent explorations of Lütke and other modern navigators, it must still remain a striking proof of the wonderful ability and accuracy of that extraordinary man.

After passing Cape Nassau, Barents continued his course southwards without any remarkable incident, till on the 15th of August he reached the islands of “Matfloe and Dolgoy,”—Matvyeéa Ostrov and Dolgoi Ostrov of the Russians, meaning Matthew’s Island and Long Island,—where he fell in with Nai and Tetgales, who had just arrived there, on their return from the Sea of Kara through Yugorsky Shar (Pet’s Strait), to which, with pardonable national vanity, they had given the name of the Strait of Nassau. Their report was that they had sailed fifty or sixty Dutch miles (200 or 240 geographical miles) to the eastward of that strait, and in their opinion had reached about the longitude of the river Ob, and were not far from Cape Tabin (Taimur), the furthest point of Tartary, whence the coast trended to the south-east, and afterwards to the south, towards the kingdom of Cathay. [132]

After much rejoicing on both sides at their happy meeting, the whole fleet now sailed homewards in company, and on the 14th of September came to the Doggers Sand, whence Nai, in the Swan, proceeded to Middelburg, whilst the other vessels passed by the Texel to their several ports.

The reports made by Barents and Linschoten of the results of their respective voyages were very different in character. The former, though anything but an illiterate man, could make no pretensions to scholarship. The latter was an accomplished scholar, as is plainly shown by his narrative of this first and of the second voyage (which will be more particularly noticed in the sequel), and by his other published works; and though the vessels which he accompanied had not in reality accomplished so much as those of Barents, yet he appears to have had no difficulty in convincing their employers and the higher authorities that they had been not far from the realisation of the object of their voyage.

That, in the estimation of the Amsterdammers, Linschoten represented matters in too favourable a light, is manifest from Gerrit de Veer’s innuendo at the commencement of his description of the second voyage, that he “de saeck vry wat breedt voort stelde,” [133] which caused Linschoten to reply that, whether he had done so or not, he left to the judgment of the discreet reader. [134]

Our present knowledge of those seas enables us to judge the question fairly and impartially between the two, and to decide that, when at the Islands of Orange, Barents had sailed from Kildin, their point of separation, further in a direct line, and made a more easterly longitude, than Nai and Tetgales had when at their furthest point on the eastern side of the Sea of Kara; and that, when there, he was quite as near as they were to the mouth of the Ob, and as near again to Cape Taimur; with the certainty, further, that from the former position a passage eastwards would at most times, if not always, be attended with fewer difficulties than from the latter. And it cannot be denied that Linschoten, in stating as he does on the title-page of his work, and at the commencement of his Introduction, without any qualification, that he “sailed through the Strait of Nassau to beyond the river Oby,” has certainly afforded a justification for De Veer’s imputation that he represented matters “vry wat breedt.” [135]

Stimulated by Linschoten’s report, the adventurers who had fitted out the former expedition, with others who now joined them, determined on dispatching in the following year a large and well-appointed fleet, not merely in the hope of accomplishing the passage to China which had been so well commenced, but also with a view to the establishment of an advantageous trade with that kingdom, and the other countries that might be discovered and visited in the course of the voyage, in respect of which trade they obtained from the Government of the United Provinces certain exclusive privileges and advantages.

This fleet consisted of seven vessels, namely, two from Zeelandt, two from Enkhuysen, two from Amsterdam (which city, in consequence of the want of success of Barents’s first voyage by Novaya Zemlya, was now willing to take part in the undertaking of the other ports), and one from Rotterdam. The following are the names of the vessels and of their commanders. The Griffin (Griffoen), of Zeelandt, of the burthen of 100 lasts (200 tons), commanded by Cornelis Cornelisz. Nai, who was appointed admiral or superintendent of the fleet; the Swan (Swane), also of Zeelandt, of the burthen of 50 lasts (100 tons), which had been on the former voyage, and was now commanded by Lambert Gerritsz. Oom, of Enkhuysen; the Hope (Hoope), of Enkhuysen, a new war-pinnace (oorlogspinas) of 100 lasts, commanded by Brant Ysbrantsz. Tetgales, vice-admiral; the Mercury (Mercurius), of Enkhuysen, of 50 lasts, which had been on the former voyage, and was now commanded by Thomas Willemszoon; the Greyhound (Winthont), of Amsterdam, likewise a new war-pinnace, of 100 lasts, commanded by William Barents, pilot-major of the fleet, under whom was Cornelis Jacobszoon as skipper; [136] a yacht [137] of Amsterdam, of 50 lasts (probably the Mercury of the former voyage), commanded by Harman Janszoon; and lastly, a yacht of Rotterdam, of about 20 lasts, or 40 tons burthen, commanded by Hendrick Hartman. The last-named vessel was commissioned, when the fleet should have reached Cape Tabin, or so far that it might thence continue its course southwards without hindrance from the ice, to return and bring news of their success to Holland. The vessels were all well equipped, with a double complement of men, and ammunition and victuals for a year and a half. The interpreter of the fleet was Meester Christoffel Splindler, as on the former voyage. As supercargoes on behalf of the merchants of Holland and West Friesland, were Jan Huyghen van Linschoten, Jacob van Heemskerck, and Jan Cornelisz. Rijp; and for those of Zeelandt, François de la Dale and N. Buys, with some other relatives of Balthazar Moucheron. Linschoten and De la Dale were further appointed chief commissioners of the fleet on behalf of his excellency prince Maurice and the States General, from whom they received the following commission:—

Instructions to Jan Huygen van Linschoten and Françoys de la Dale, Chief Commissioners, for the regulation of their conduct in the kingdom of China, and other kingdoms and countries which shall be visited by the ships and yachts destined for the voyage round by the North, through the Vaigats or Strait of Nassau.

In the first place, after Mr. Christoffel Splindler, the Slavonian, shall have been on shore and ascertained whether they may land there, they shall go on shore to the king, governor, or other authority of the place, to whom they shall, on behalf of these States, offer all friendship, and shall explain the circumstances of these States, namely, that they hold communication by sea with all countries and nations in the whole world, for the purpose of trafficking, trading, and dealing with them in a friendly and upright manner, for which they possess many advantages of divers sorts of merchandise and otherwise.

Item, that the Government of this Country being surely informed that upright trade, traffic, and dealings are carried on in the said kingdoms and countries, have found it good to send thither some ships, under good order, government, and regulation, with merchandise, money, and other commodities, in order to begin dealings, by means of certain trusty and honest persons on board the said ships, for whom they shall ask free intercourse there, to the end aforesaid.

They shall do their best to come to an agreement for a fair, faithful, upright, and uninterrupted trade, traffic, and navigation, to the mutual advantage of the said kingdoms and of these States, as well as of their respective inhabitants; and in case the same shall be found good there, they shall declare that to that end it is intended to visit them with a good embassy by the first opportunity, provided the same shall be agreeable to them.

They shall explain there what commodities and merchandizes can from time to time be taken thither from these States; and they shall also carefully examine so as to ascertain what merchandizes and wares may, in return for the same, be obtained from those kingdoms and countries and brought to these States.

They shall keep a good and accurate account of everything that shall occur during the voyage, as well on ship-board, in the discovery of countries and ports, and on all other occasions, as likewise of that which shall happen to them on shore; so that, immediately on their return, they may of all things make a good and faithful report in writing to the Lords the States General.

Done and concluded in the Assembly of the Lords the States General of the United Netherlands at the Hague, the 16th of June 1595.

Sloeth vt.

By order of the Lords, the States aforesaid.

C. Aersens, &c. [138]