The Voyage Of The Vega Round Asia And Europe Part 17

Many Russian crosses were also erected there. Some days later they found on the south sh.o.r.e of the sound a small house filled with idols, much better made than the former, with eyes and paps of metal. While the Dutch were employed in examining this collection of idols, a reindeer sledge was driven forward in which sat a man armed with a bow. When he saw the foreigners, he called loudly, on which a number of sledges with about thirty men drove out of a valley and endeavoured to surround the Dutch. They now fled in haste to their boat, and when it had left the beach the Samoyeds shot at it with their arrows, but without hitting it. This bloodless conflict is, so far as we know, the only one that took place between the natives and the north-east voyagers. The latter are thus free from the great bloodguiltiness which attaches to most of those, who in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries made voyages of discovery in southern regions.

Some days later, on the 10th August/31st July, the Dutch had a friendly meeting with the Samoyeds, who gave them very correct information concerning the state of the land and the sea, telling them that "after ten or twelve days they would meet with no more ice, and that summer would last six or seven weeks longer." After the Dutch had learned all they could from these "barbarians, who had greater skill in managing their bow than a nautical gnomon, and could give better information regarding their hunting than about the navigable water," they took their departure. When one of the sailors hereupon blew a horn, the savages were so frightened, that they begun to take to flight, but, quieted by the a.s.surance that the blast of the horn was only a sign of friendship, they returned and on the beach saluted the departing strangers, bowing themselves to the earth with uncovered heads and crossed hands.

On the 11th/1st August the Dutch, full of hope, sailed into the Kara Sea, or, as they called it, the "North Tartaric Ocean." They soon fell in with ice, on which account on the 13th/3rd they sought protection under Mestni Island (Staten Eiland). Here they found a sort of rock crystal resembling diamonds in all respects except hardness, a disappointing circ.u.mstance which was ascribed to the action of cold. Here also were seen images and sacrificial places, but no houses and no trees.

When Nay and Tetgales sailed on, they came to an extensive open sea, and on the 20/10th August they believed that they were off the mouth of the Obi. Two of its princ.i.p.al mouth-arms they named, after the vessels, "Swan" and "Mercurius," names which have since been forgotten. It is quite evident that the river which the Dutch took for the Obi was the Kara, and that the mouth-arms, Swan and Mercurius, were two small coast rivers which debouch from Yalmal into the Kara Sea.

On the 21st/11th August they determined to return home, taking it for proved that, from the point which had been reached, it would be easy to double "Promontorium Tabin," and thus get to China by the north-east pa.s.sage. A large number of whales were seen raising half their bodies out of the sea and spouting jets of water from their nostrils in the common way, which was considered a further sign that they had an extensive ocean before them.

On the 24/14th August, Nay and Tetgales sailed again through Yugor Schar (Fretum Na.s.sovic.u.m), and the day after at three small islands, which were called Mauritius, Orange, and New Walcheren, they fell in with Barents, and all sailed home to Holland, fully convinced that the question of the possibility of a north-east pa.s.sage to China was now solved. It was shown indeed, in the following year, that this supposition rested on quite too slight a foundation, but the voyages of Nay and Tetgales deserve in any case an honoured place in the history of navigation, for they extended considerably the knowledge of the northern regions through the discovery, or at least through the first pa.s.sage of, Yogor Schar, and, like Barents, these seafarers must get the credit of carrying out the task a.s.signed to them with skill, insight, resolution, and resource.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MAP OF FRETUM Na.s.sOVIc.u.m OR YUGOR SCHAR. After Linschoten. ]

THE SECOND DUTCH EXPEDITION, 1595.[133] After the return of the first expedition a report of the discoveries which had been made was given in to Prince MAURICE of ORANGE, JAN VAN OLDENBARNEVELT, Advocate of Holland, and the other authorities at home. They were so convinced by this report that the sea route to China was actually discovered, that they immediately made arrangements to send out the following year a flotilla of seven vessels, two from Amsterdam, two from Zeeland, two from Enkhuizen, and one from Rotterdam, with a view to open the new commercial communication.

The commanders of the vessels were CORNELIS NAY (Admiral), BRANDT TETGALES (Second in Command), BARENTS, LAMBERT GERRITSZ. OOM, THOMAS WILLEMSZ., HARMAN JANSZ., and HENDRIK HARTMAN. The lieutenants were LINSCHOTEN, JACOB HEEMSKERK, FRANcOYS DE LA DALE, JAN CORNELISZ., RIJP, and N. BUYS. Six of the vessels were laden with goods and coin; the seventh was to return, home with news when the fleet had sailed through Vaygats Sound. The great preparations, however, occupied so much time that it was not until the 12th/2nd July that the voyage could be begun. On the 22nd/12th August, Kegor on the Ribatschni peninsula was sighted, and on the 29/19th August the fleet arrived at the Sound between Vaygats and the mainland, and found a great deal of ice there.

On the 3rd Sep./24th Aug. the Dutch met with some Russians, who told them that the winter had been very severe, but that the ice would in a short time disappear, and that the summer would still last six weeks. They also stated that the land to the northward, which was called Vaygats, was an island, separated on its north side from Novaya Zemlya; that it was visited in summer by natives, who towards winter returned to the mainland; that Russian vessels, laden with goods, yearly sailed through Vaygats Sound past the Obi to the river Gillissy (Yenisej), where they pa.s.sed the winter; that the dwellers on the Yenisej were of the Greek-Christian religion, &c.

On the 10th Sept./31st Aug. the Dutch came in contact with the Samoyeds south of Vaygats Sound. Their "king" received the strangers in a very hospitable and friendly manner, and informed them that in three or four weeks the cold would begin; that in some years the drift-ice did not disappear; that during winter the whole sound and the bays and coves were frozen over, but that the sea on both sides did not freeze; that beyond the mouth of the river Ob there were the mouths of two other rivers, of which the more remote was called the "Molconsay," the nearer, which was often visited by Russian trading vessels, the Gillissy; that the land continued beyond the Ob to a cape which projected towards Novaya Zemlya, and that beyond this promontory there was a great sea, which extended along Tartary to warm regions.[134]

When the Dutch sailed into the Kara Sea they fell in with much ice, on which account they anch.o.r.ed at the island, Staten Eiland, where during the preceding voyage rock crystal had been found. Here two men were killed in the way that has already been described.[135]

Depressed by this unfortunate occurrence and afraid to expose their vessels, laden with valuable goods, too late in the season, to the large quant.i.ty of ice which drifted about in the Kara Sea, the commanders determined to turn. The fleet returned to Holland without further adventure, pa.s.sing through Vaygats Sound on the 25/15th September.

This expedition did not yield any new contribution to the knowledge of our globe. But it deserves to be noted that we can state with certainty, with the knowledge we now possess of the ice-conditions of the Kara Sea, that the Dutch during both their first and second voyages had the way open to the Obi and Yenisej. If they had availed themselves of this and continued their voyage till they came to inhabited regions on either of these rivers, a considerable commerce would certainly have arisen between Middle Asia and Europe by this route as early as the beginning of the seventeenth century.

THE THIRD DUTCH EXPEDITION, 1596-97.[136] After the unfortunate issue of the expedition of 1595, which had been fitted out at so great an expense, and which had raised so great expectations, the States-General would not grant the necessary funds for a third voyage, but they offered instead a great prize to the states or merchants that at their own expense should send out a vessel that should by the route north of Asia force a pa.s.sage to Asia and China.[137] Encouraged by this offer the merchants of Amsterdam sent out two vessels, one under the command of Willem Barents and Jacob van Heemskerk, the other under Jan Cornelisz. Rijp. The crew were chosen with care, unmarried men being preferred, with the idea that wife and children would detract from the bravery of the members of the expedition and lead them to return home prematurely.

[Ill.u.s.tration: UNSUCCESSFUL FIGHT WITH A POLAR BEAR. During the Second Dutch Expedition. From De Veer. ]

On the 20/10th May these vessels left Amsterdam. On the 14/4th June they saw in lat. 71 North some beautiful parhelia, which are found delineated in De Veer's work, and Blavii _Atlas Major_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map showing Barents' Third Voyage, from _J.L. Pontani Rerum et urbis Amstelodamensium historia_, Amst., 1611 ]

On the 15/5th June one of the crew cried out from the deck that he saw white swans, but on a closer examination it appeared that they consisted of large pieces of ice, which drifted along the edge of the pack.[138] On the 19/9th they discovered, north of North Cape, a new island, situated in lat.i.tude 74 30' North. A large bear was killed here, and on this account the island was called Bear Island. On the 29/19th they came in the 80th degree of lat.i.tude to another formerly unknown land, which they believed to be connected with Greenland. It was in fact the large group of islands, which afterwards obtained the name Spitzbergen. There were found here on a small island the eggs of a species of goose--_rotgansen_[139] which comes yearly to Holland in great flocks, but whose breeding place was before unknown. With reference to this, De Veer says that it is finally proved that this goose is not, as has been hitherto supposed, propagated in Scotland by the goose laying her eggs from the branches of trees overhanging the water, the eggs being broken in pieces against the surface of the water, and the newly hatched young immediately swimming about.

After an unsuccessful attempt had been made to sail to the north of Spitzbergen the vessels proceeded southwards along the west coast,[140] and on the 11th/1st July came again to Bear Island. Here the vessels parted company, Barents sailing eastwards towards Novaya Zemlya, Rijp northwards towards the east coast of Spitzbergen. On the 27/17th July, Barents reached the west coast of Novaya Zemlya in lat.i.tude 73 20' North. On the 30/20th July, no further advance could be made for ice, which still lay close to the sh.o.r.e.

During the stay here there were several adventures with bears, all of which, came off successfully. In consequence of ice obstacles their progress was exceedingly slow, so that it was not until the 25/15th August that they reached the Orange Islands. The following day several of the crew ascended a high mountain, from which they saw open water on the other side of an island. As glad at the sight of the sea as the ten thousand under Xenophon, they rushed back to the vessel to give Barents the important news. He now did all he could to pa.s.s the north extremity of Novaya Zemlya. He was successful in doing so, and on the 31/21st a haven, situated in about the lat.i.tude of 76 North, was reached with great difficulty, but all attempts to sail eastwards from it were unsuccessful. Finally, on the 4th Sept./25th Aug. Barents determined to return to Holland.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BARENTS' AND RIJP'S VESSELS. From De Veer. ]

Now, however, it was too late. The haven was blocked with drift-ice, which was in constant motion, several times pressed the vessel high up between the pieces of ice, and finally broke the rudder in pieces. It was now evident that it would be necessary to winter, and for this purpose the requisite tools, household articles, and provisions were landed and men sent out to examine the neighbourhood. Reindeer tracks were seen, and, what was more important, there were found on the beach large tree-stems with their roots still adhering, and other wood which the marine currents had drifted to this otherwise completely woodless region. The drift-wood was collected in large heaps that it might not be buried under the snow in winter. A place was chosen for a house, and the Dutch began to draw timber to the place. The openings in the drift-ice were on the 25/15th September covered with a crust of ice two inches thick, but on the 5th Oct./15th Sept. the ice was again somewhat broken up, which however was of no advantage to the imprisoned, because their vessel was forced up so high on a block of ground ice that it could not be got off. Bears were hunted almost daily. They were very bold and sometimes came on board the vessel. On the 15/5th October all ice was driven off as far as the eye could see, but the vessel still lay motionless on the blocks of ground ice. Round these the ice closed in again, to break up anew at a greater or less distance from the beach. On the 4th March/22nd Feb. there was still much open water visible from the beach, and on the 16/6th and 18/8th March, the sea appears to have been in one direction completely free of ice.

On the 31/21st October, the crew began to remove into the house, where they afterwards pa.s.sed the winter 1596-97 with many sufferings, dangers, difficulties, and privations which are described in De Veer's work. The crew, however, never lost courage, which undoubtedly was a princ.i.p.al cause of most of them being saved.

The house was built on the north-east side of Novaya Zemlya, on the sh.o.r.e of Barents' Ice Haven. It was situated far to the north of any other place where men had previously pa.s.sed the winter. The land and its animal life was unknown, the hard frozen, almost rock-fast and yet continually moving ice-covering, with which the sea was bound, was something quite novel, as also were the effects which long continued and severe cold exerts on animate and inanimate objects.

Before the attempt was made it was not considered at all certain that men could actually endure the severe cold of the highest north and the winter night three or four months long. No wonder therefore that the skill and undaunted resolution of the Dutch Polar explorers aroused unmingled admiration among all civilised nations, and that the narrative of their wintering was received with unbounded interest and formed the subject of innumerable writings and reproductions both in prose and verse in almost all civilised languages. Only a few facts from the journal of the wintering need therefore be given here.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BARENTS' HOUSE, OUTSIDE. From De Veer. ]

[Ill.u.s.tration: BARENTS' HOUSE, INSIDE. From De Bry. ]

On the 14/4th November the sun disappeared, and was again visible on the 3rd Feb./24th Jan. These dates have caused scientific men much perplexity, because in lat.i.tude 76 North, the upper edge of the sun ought to have ceased to be visible when the sun's south declination in autumn became greater than 13,[141] and to have again become visible when the declination again became less than that figure; that is so say, the sun ought to have been seen for the last time at Barents' Ice Haven on the 27/17th October, and it ought to have appeared again there on the 14/4th February. It has been supposed that the deviation arose from some considerable error in counting the days, but this was unanimously denied by the crew who wintered.[142] The bears disappeared and reappeared with the sun. Instead, foxes came during winter to the building, and were caught for food in numbers, many on the roof of the house. In order to pa.s.s the time and keep up their courage, the Dutch sometimes had entertainments, at which the cheerfulness of the partakers had to make up for the meagreness of the fare. After the return of the sun the bears again came very close, so that there was a number of hunting adventures with them, all of which came off successfully.

Several bears made themselves at home in the vessel abandoned by the crew, casting everything about, and broke up the hatch of the kitchen, covered as it was with deep snow. An attempt to eat bear's liver resulted in those that ate of it becoming very ill, and after recovery renewing their skin over the whole body. Once during severe cold, when pitcoal was used to warm the building, all the men in it were like to have died of the fumes. On one or two occasions, for instance on the 25/15th February, so much snow had collected outside the door, that it was necessary to go out by the chimney. For the preservation of their health the Dutch often took a vapour bath in a barrel fitted up for the purpose.

On the 7th May/27th April the first small birds were seen, and on the 25/15th May Barents declared that if the vessel were not got off before the end of the month, they should return in boats, which were therefore immediately got ready. This was, however, attended with great difficulty, because most of the crew had during the course of the winter become exceedingly weak, evidently from scurvy. After the equipment of the boats had been completed and they had been properly laden with provisions, the Dutch at last started on the 23rd/13th June.

A man had died on the 6th Feb./27th Jan. At beginning of the boat voyage Barents himself was very ill, and six days after, on the 30/20th June, he died, while resting with his companions on a large floe, being compelled to do so by the drift-ice. On the same day one of the crew died, and on the 15/5th July another.

On the 7th Aug./28 July returning Arctic explorers at St. Lawrens'

Bay fell in with two vessels manned by Russian hunters, whose acquaintance the Dutchmen had made the year before, and who now received them with great friendliness and pity for their sufferings.

They continued their voyage in their small open boats, and all arrived in good health and spirits at Kola, where they were received with festivities by the inhabitants. It gave them still greater joy to meet here Jan Cornelisz. Rijp, from whom they had parted at Bear Island the preceding year, and of whose voyage we know only that he intended to sail up along the east coast of Spitzbergen, and that, when this was found to be impossible, he returned home the same autumn.

After the two boats, in which Barents' companions had travelled with so many dangers and difficulties from their winter haven to Russian Lapland, had been left in the merchant's yard[143] at Kola, as a memorial of the journey--the first memorial of a Polar expedition was thus raised at Kola--they went on board Rijp's vessel, and sailed in it to Holland, arriving there the 8th November/29th October. Sixteen men had left Holland with Barents, twelve men returned in safety to their native land, and among them JACOB VAN HEEMSKERK, a man who during the whole voyage had played a prominent part, and afterwards lived long enough to see the time when the Dutch were a match at sea for the Spaniards. For he fell as commander of the Dutch fleet which defeated the Spanish at Gibraltar on April 25, 1607.

[Ill.u.s.tration: JACOB VAN HEEMSKERK. Born in 1567 at Amsterdam, died in 1607 at Gibraltar After a contemporary engraving by N.

de Clerck. ]

During Barents' third voyage Bear Island and Spitzbergen were discovered, and the natural conditions of the high northern regions during winter first became known. On the other hand, the unfortunate issue of the maritime expeditions sent out from Holland appears to have completely deterred from farther attempts to find a north-eastern commercial route to China and j.a.pan, and this route was also now less necessary, as Houtman returned with the first Dutch fleet from the East Indies the same year that Barents'

companions came back from their wintering. The problem was therefore seriously taken up anew for the first time during the present century; though during the intervening period attempts to solve it were not wholly wanting.

For the desire to extend the White Sea trade to Siberia, and jealousy of the companies that had known how to procure for themselves a monopoly of the lucrative commerce with eastern Asia, still led various merchants now and then during the seventeenth century to send out vessels to try whether it was possible to penetrate beyond Novaya Zemlya. I shall confine myself here to an enumeration of the most important of these undertakings, with the necessary bibliographical references.

1608. HENRY HUDSON, during his second voyage, landed on Novaya Zemlya at Karmakul Bay and other places, but did not succeed in his attempt to sail further to the east, north of this island. He made the voyage on account of English merchants. A narrative of it is to be found in _Purchas_ (iii. p. 574), and an excellent critical collection of all the original doc.u.ments relating to Hudson's life and voyages in G.M. Asher's _Henry Hudson the Navigator_, London, 1860 (Works issued by the Hakluyt Society, No. 26). It was west of the Atlantic that Hudson earned the laurels which gave him for all time so prominent a place in the history of navigation, and the sea there also became his grave. Eastwards he did not penetrate so far as his predecessors. I cannot therefore here find room for any account of his voyage to Novaya Zemlya; it may only be mentioned that two of his crew on the morning of the 25/15th of June, 1608, in 75 N.L., saw a mermaid. The following statement is taken from his journal: "This morning one of the crew, as he looked over the side, saw a mermaid. Another of his comrades came up at his call.

She was close to the vessel's side, looking steadily at the men.

Soon after she was thrown down by a wave. From the middle upwards her back and breast were like a woman's. Her body was as large as a man's, her skin very white, and long dark hair hung down her back.

When she dived, they saw her tail, which resembled that of a dolphin and was spotted like a mackerel's. The names of the men who saw her were Thomas Hiller and Robert Bayner." It was probably a curious seal that gave occasion to this version of the old yarn.

1611. WILLIAM GOURDON, with the t.i.tle "appointed chief pilote for discoverie to Ob," brought this year a cargo of goods to Pustosersk, and sailed thence to Novaya Zemlya. At the mouth of the Petchora he saw 24 _lodjas_, manned with ten to 16 men each, bound for "Mangansei" east of Ob (_Purchas_, iii. pp. 530, 534). While attempting to get further information regarding these voyages to Siberia, the Muscovy Company's envoy learned that, at least as a rule, the question was only of carrying goods by sea to the bottom of Kara Bay, whence they were transported overland to Ob, advantage being taken of two small rivers and a lake (_Purchas_, iii. p. 539).

But other accounts lead us to infer that the Russian _lodjas_ actually sailed to Ob, even through Matotschkin Schar, as appears from statements in _Purchas_ (iii. pp. 804, 805). At the same place we find the statement, already quoted, of a Russian, who in 1584 offered for fifty roubles to act as guide overland from the Petchora to the Ob, that a West-European ship was wrecked at the mouth of the Ob, and its crew killed by the Samoyeds who lived there. The Russian also said that it was an easy matter to sail from Vaygats to the mouth of the Ob.

1612. The whaling captain JAN CORNELISZ. VAN HOORN endeavoured to sail north of Novaya Zemlya towards the east, but met with ice in 77 N.L., which compelled him to return (_Witsen_, p. 906).

1625. CORNELIS BOSMAN, at the instance of the Northern Company of the Netherlands, with a vessel of 90 tons, manned by 24 men, and provisioned for two and a half years, pa.s.sed through Yugor Schar eastwards, but fell in with so much ice in the Kara Sea that he was compelled to seek for a harbour in that sound. There he waited for more favourable conditions, but was finally compelled by storm and ice to return with his object unaccomplished. (S. Muller, _Geschiedenis der Noordsche Compagnie_, Utrecht, 1874, p. 185.)

1653.[144] This year a Danish expedition was sent out to the North-east. An account of the voyage was given by DE LA MARTINIeRE, surgeon to the expedition, in a work published for the first time at Paris in 1671, with the following t.i.tle: _Voyage des Pais Septentrionaux. Dans lequel se void les moeurs, maniere de vivre, &c.

superst.i.tions des Norweguiens, Lappons, Kiloppes, Borandiens, Syberiens, Samojedes, Zembliens, &c. Islandois, enrichi de plusieurs figures_.[145] This work afterwards attained a considerable circulation, doubtless in consequence of Martiniere's easy style, contrasting so strongly with the common dry ship's-log manner, and the large number of wonderful stories he narrates, without the least regard to truth or probability. He is the Munchhausen of the North-east voyages. The Norse peasants, for instance, are said to be all slaves to the n.o.bles, who have sovereign power over their property, tyrannise over their inferiors, and are p.r.o.ne to insurrection. The elks are said to be liable to falling sickness, and therefore fall down in convulsions when they are hunted--hence their name "eleend." Sailors are said to have purchased on the north-west coast of Norway for ten crowns and a pound of tobacco three knots of wind from the Lapps living there, who were all magicians; when the first knot was loosed, a gentle breeze arose, the second gave a strong gale, the third a storm, during which the vessel was in danger of being wrecked.[146]. Novaya Zemlya is stated to be inhabited by a peculiar tribe, "the Zembliens," of whom two were taken prisoners and carried to Copenhagen. De la Martiniere also got the head of a walrus, which had been harpooned with great difficulty; the animal was drawn as a fish with a long horn projecting from its head. As a specimen of the birds of Novaya Zemlya a penguin was drawn and described, and finally the work closed with a rectification of the map of the Polar Regions, which according to the author's ideas ought to be as represented below. I refer to these absurdities, because the account of Martiniere's voyage exerted no little influence on the older writings relating to the Arctic Regions.

1664 and 1668. A whaling captain, WILLEM DE VLAMINGH, sailed in 1664 round the northern extremity of Novaya Zemlya to Barents' winter quarters, and thence eastwards, where one of his men thought he saw land ("Jelmert-landt," _Witsen_, p. 902).[147] The same Vlamingh says that in 1668 he discovered, twenty-five miles N.N.E. of Kolgujev, a new island three to four miles in circ.u.mference. This island, which was described in great detail, and named by the discoverer "Witsen's Island," has not since been seen again (_Witsen_, p. 923).

1666. In this year some vessels were sent from the Netherlands to the north-east. There were Jews among the owners, and the seafarers were furnished with letters in Hebrew, because it was believed that they would come in contact with some of the lost tribes of Israel.

Nothing farther appears to have been known of the voyage, which undoubtedly was without result. (_Witsen_, p. 962.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: DE LA MARTINIeRE'S MAP. ]

1675. A Dutch whaling captain, CORNELIS PIERSZ. Sn.o.b-BERGER, visited Novaya Zemlya, on whose coast he killed three whales and six hundred walruses. He would probably have got still more "fish," if he had not in 72-1/2 found an ore, which appeared to contain silver, gold, and other metals. Instead of blubber the skipper now loaded ore, which in his opinion was precious, but afterwards on being tested at home was found to be valueless (_Witsen_, p. 918).

17th Century, year not stated. Shipmaster CORNELIS ROULE is said to have sailed in the longitude of Novaya Zemlya to 84-1/2 or 85 N.L. and there discovered a fjord-land, along which he sailed ten miles. Beyond that a large open sea was seen. From a high mountain situated on a sound, in which he rode, it appeared that he might sail one or two watches further to the north. He found there large numbers of birds, which were exceedingly tame (_Witsen_, p.

920). If we take some degrees from the lat.i.tude stated, which is perhaps not very unreasonable in dealing with the narratives of old whalers, which have pa.s.sed through two or three hands, Roule may, as far back as two hundred years ago, have reached Franz-Josef's Land, and sailed along its coast to a very high lat.i.tude for those regions.