The Voyage Of The Vega Round Asia And Europe Part 19

[Footnote 129: The name Oliver Brunel occurs so often in accounts of the first voyages to Novaya Zemlya, and the man who bore it appears to have exercised so great an influence on the development of commercial communications with Russia, and the sending out of exploratory expeditions to the North Polar Sea, that I shall give a brief sketch of his life, mainly after S. Muller, _Geschiedenis der Noordsche Compagnie_, Utrecht, 1874, p. 26.

Oliver Brunel was born in Brussels, and in 1565 went in a Russian vessel from Kola to Kolmogor in order to learn the Russian language and make himself acquainted with the trade of the region. But the English, who of course eagerly endeavoured to prevent any intrusion on their newly-discovered commercial territory, prevailed on the Russians to keep him in prison for several years. In the end he was set at liberty, or rather handed over to the rich merchants Jakov and Grigory Anikiev (Stroganov). In consequence of this, Brunel came to take part in the commercial expeditions sent out by this mercantile house, (which by the conquest of Siberia acquired a world-historical importance, both by land and sea,) to the parts of Asia bordering on Russia, whereby he became well acquainted with the Polar Sea and the Gulf of Obi. Brunel afterwards brought about direct communication between the Netherlands and the great commercial house, almost sovereign _de facto_ if not _de jure_ in extensive countries. In connection with this Brunel made strenuous exertions to open in earnest the navigation of the Netherlands to the White Sea, and there found a Netherlands factory, which was placed not on Rosen Island, which was occupied by the English, but on the spot where the present Archangel is situated. Brunel next took part in preparations for a Russian North-east expedition, for which Swedish shipbuilders were received into Stroganov's service.

Brunei himself travelled by land to Holland to enlist men. A number of particulars regarding these undertakings of Brunel are contained in a letter of JOHN BALAK to GERARD MERCATOR, dated "Arusburgi ad Ossellam fluvium" the 20th February, 1581. The letter is printed in the second edition of _Hakluyt_, 1598, i. p. 509. Scarcely however had Brunel returned to his native country, before he altered his plan and wished to procure for his own fatherland the honour and advantage of the undertaking. The first attempt of the Dutch to reach China and j.a.pan by the north-east thus came about. Of this voyage we know only that Brunel endeavoured without success to sail through Yugor Schar, and that his vessel, heavily laden with furs, plates of mica, and rock-crystal, was wrecked on the way home at the mouth of the Petchora (_Beschryvinghe vander Samoyeden Landt in Tartarien, &c._ Amsterdam, 1612. S. Muller's Photolithographic Reproduction, 1878). The mica and rock-crystal were undoubtedly brought from the Ural, as no useful plates of mica or large rock-crystals are found in the region of the Petchora. Brunel then entered the Danish service. For we know that an Oliver Brunel during the reign of King Fredrik II. in Denmark offered to explore Greenland, and for that purpose in 1583 obtained the right to settle in Bergen and there enjoy six years freedom from taxes (Cf.

_Groenlands historiske Mindesmoerker_, Copenhagen, 1838, vol. iii.

p. 666). ]

[Footnote 130: Probably the Sachanich Bay of the Russians. ]

[Footnote 131: _Voyagie, ofte Schip Vaert, van Jan Huyghen van Linschoten, van by Noorden, om langes Noorwegen de Noortcaep, Laplant, Vinlant, Ruslandt_ ... _tot voorby de revier Oby_, Franeker, 1601. Another edition at Amsterdam in 1624, and in abstract in Saeghman's collection of travels in 1665. The voyage is also described in Blavii _Atlas Major_, 1665. Linschoten was "commis" on board, a post which included both the employment of supercargo and that of owners' commissioner. ]

[Footnote 132: That is Yugor Schar. This name also occurs, though in a somewhat altered form, as "Wegorscoi tzar," on Isaac Ma.s.sa's map of 1612, which, according to the statement of the publisher, is a copy of a Russian chart. ]

[Footnote 133: Accounts of this expedition are given both by De Veer and Linschoten in the above-named works. ]

[Footnote 134: These remarkable statements are found in Linschoten's above quoted work printed in 1601, and cannot therefore be spurious.

They thus show that Taimur Land was inhabited by Samoyeds, and that the geography of this region was then well known. ]

[Footnote 135: See above, page 142. ]

[Footnote 136: The sketch of this voyage forms the main portion of the above mentioned work of De Veer. Undoubtedly the adventures during the wintering, the first in so high a lat.i.tude, in the first place procured for De Veer's work the enormous popularity it enjoyed, and led to its being translated into so many languages. ]

[Footnote 137: The resolution regarding the offer of this prize is given below: Extract nit het Register der Resolutien van de Hoog Mogende Heeren Staten Generael der Vereenigde Nederlanden.

Folio 158 vso 13 April 1596.

De Gedeputeerde van de Heeren Staten van Holland verclaren dat heure princ.i.p.alen geadviseert hebbende op de hervattinge van het voyagie naer China en j.a.pan, benoorden om, deselve voyage afgeslagen hebben, ten aenzien van de groote costen die nu twee Jaren achter den anderen om de reyse te verzoeken te vorgeefs angewent zijn, maer dat Hare E. goetgevonden ende geconsenteert hebben, mede tgevolgh van de andere provincien bij zoeverre datter eenige coopluijden aventuriers bij compagnie ofte anderssine de voerscreven reijse op heure costen ende risique, zonder te schepen ende tgelt van den lande, zonde begeren te verzoeken, dat men dezelve aventuriers de reijse gevonden ende gedaen hebbende, daervan brengende goet ende geloofflijck beschijt, tot haer luijder wedercomste, zal vereeren mette somme van vijff en twintich duysent gulden eens. Item daar enboven accorderen den vrijdom voor twee jaren van convoyen der goederen die zij uit dese landen naer China off j.a.pan zullen transporteren, ende noch vrijdom voer den tyd van acht jaren van te goederen die zij uit China ofte j.a.pan in dese landen sullen bringen. Waerop geadviseert wesende hebben de Gedeputeerde van d'andere provincien hen daarmede geconformeert, die van Seelant opt welbehagen van heure princ.i.p.alen, maer die van Utrecht hebben verclart niet te consenteren in de vereeringe van XXVm. ]

[Footnote 138: Every Polar traveller has at one time or other made the same or a similar mistake. In 1861, for instance, a boat party, of whom I was one, thought that they saw clearly sailors in sou'-westers and with white shirtsleeves building a cairn on a point which appeared to be at no great distance. But the cairn was found to be a very distant mountain, the shirt-sleeves were formed of snow-fields, the sou'-westers of pointed cliffs, and the motion arose from oscillatory changes in the atmospheric strata. ]

[Footnote 139: Undoubtedly _Anser bernicla_, which is common on the west coast of Spitzbergen. The Dutch name ought neither to be translated _red goose_, as some Englishmen have done, nor confounded with _rotges_. ]

[Footnote 140: See the copy of Barents' own map with his course laid down upon it, which is to be found in Ponta.n.u.s, _Rerum et urbis Amstelodamensium Historia_ (Amst. 1611), and is annexed to this work in photolithographic facsimile. ]

[Footnote 141: On the a.s.sumption of a horizontal refraction of about 45'. ]

[Footnote 142: See on this point De Veer, leaf 25 and an unpaged leaf between pages 30 and 31 in Blavii _Atlas Major_, tom. i. That a mistake occurred in the date is not possible, because the lat.i.tude was determined by solar observations on the 29th (19th) February, the 21st (11th) and 31st (21st) March (see De Veer, I. 27). Besides, at the correct date, the 3rd February (24th January), a conjunction of Jupiter and the moon was observed, whereby the difference of longitude between Ice Haven and Venice was determined to be 75.

However erroneous this determination may be, it shows, however, that the date was correct. ]

[Footnote 143: Built along with a weigh-house intended for the Norwegians in 1582 by the first vojvode in Kola (_Hamel_, p. 66).

In Ponta.n.u.s (_Rerum et urbis Amstelodamensium Historia_, Amsterodami, 1611, p. 142), there is a drawing of the inner yard of this house, and of the reception of shipwrecked men there. ]

[Footnote 144: The year is incorrectly given as 1647 by F. von Adelung (_Kritisch-Litterarische Uebersicht_, &c.). ]

[Footnote 145: The following editions are enumerated: four French, Paris, 1671, 1672, 1676, and Amsterdam, 1708; six German, Hamburg, 1675, Leipzig, 1703, 1706, 1710, 1711, and 1718; one Latin, Gluckstadt, 1675; two Dutch, Amsterdam, 1681 and 1685; one Italian, printed in Conte Aurelio degli Anzi's _Il Genio Vagante_, Parma, 1691; two English, one printed separately in 1706, the other in Harris, _Navigantium atque Itinerantium Bibl_., 3rd edition. London, 1744-48, Vol. II. p. 457. ]

[Footnote 146: The story of the wind knots is taken from Olaus Magnus, _De gentibus septentrionalibus_, Rome, 1555, p. 119. There a drawing of the appearance of the knots is also given. ]

[Footnote 147: Compare page 203. ]

[Footnote 148: These were James Duke of York, Lord Berkley, Sir John Williamson, Sir John Bankes, Mr. Samuel Peeps, Captain Herbert, Mr.

Dupey, and Mr. Hoopgood (Harris, _Nav. Bibl._, vol. ii. p. 453). ]

[Footnote 149: "All I could do in this exigency was to let the brandy-bottle go round, which kept them allways fox'd, till the 8th July Captain Flawes came so seasonably to our relief" (Barrow, _A Chronological History of Voyages into the Arctic Regions_. London, 1818, p. 268). ]

[Footnote 150: "A letter, not long since written to the Publisher by an Experienced person residing at Amsterdam," etc. (_Philosophical Transactions_, vol. IX. p. 3, London, 1674). ]

[Footnote 151: "A summary Relation of what hath been hitherto discovered in the matter of the North-East pa.s.sage; communicated by a good Hand" (_Phil. Trans._, vol. x. p. 417. London, 1675). ]

[Footnote 152: The time when the voyage was made is not stated in the letter quoted. Harris says that he with great difficulty ascertained the year of the successful voyage to the eastward to be 1670. He says further that the persons who gave him this information also stated that, at the time when this pet.i.tion was given in to the States-General, it was also a.s.serted that there was no difficulty in sailing northwards from Spitzbergen (Greenland), and that many Dutch vessels had actually done it. To confirm this statement the merchants proposed that the logs of the Spitzbergen fleet for the year 1655 should be examined. This was done. In seven of them it was found recorded that the vessels had sailed to 79 N.L. Three other logs agreed in the point that on the 1st August, 1655, 88 56' _was observed_. The sea here was open and the swell heavy (Harris, _Nav. Bibl._, ii. p. 453). J.R. Forster (_Geschichte der Entdeckungen und Schiffsfahrten im Norden_, Frankfurt a. d. Oder, 1874) appears to place the voyage eastward of Novaya Zemlya in the period before 1614. It is, however, probable that the voyage in question is Vlamingh's remarkable one in 1664, or that in 1666, of which I have already given an account. ]

[Footnote 153: In more recent times the whalers have been more modest in their statements about high northern lat.i.tudes reached.

Thus a Dutchman who had gone whale-fishing for twenty-two years, at an accidental meeting with Tschitschagoff in Bell Sound in the year 1766, stated among other things that he himself had once been in 81, but that he heard that other whalers had been in 83 and had seen land over the ice. He had seen the east coast of Greenland (Spitzbergen) only once in 75 N.L. (Herrn von Tschitschagoff Russisch-kaiserliehen Admirals _Reise nach dem Eissmeer_, St. Petersburg, 1793, p. 83). Dutch shipmasters too, who in the beginning of the seventeenth century penetrated north of Spitzbergen to 82, said that they had thence seen land towards the north (Muller, _Geschiedenis der Noordsche Compagnie_. p. 180). ]

[Footnote 154: Witsen states, p. 43, that he had conversed with a Dutch seaman, Benedictus Klerk, who had formerly served on board a whaler, and afterwards been a prisoner in Corea. He had a.s.serted that in whales that were killed on the coast of that country he had found Dutch harpoons. The Dutch then carried on whale-fishing only in the north part of the Atlantic. The _find_ thus shows that whales can swim from one ocean to the other. As we know that these colossal inhabitants of the Polar Sea do not swim from one ice-ocean to the other across the equator, this observation must be considered very important, especially at a time when the question whether Asia and America are connected across the Pole was yet unsettled. Witsen also enumerates, at p. 900, several occasions on which stone harpoons were found in the skins of whales caught in the North Atlantic. These harpoons, however, may as well be derived from the wild races, unacquainted with iron, at Davis Strait, as from tribes living on the north part of the Pacific. At Kamschatka, too, long before whale-fishing by Europeans began in Behring's Sea, harpoons marked with Latin letters were found in whales (Steller, _Beschreibung von dem Lande Kamtschatka_, Frankfurt und Leipzig, 1774, p. 102). ]

[Footnote 155: The account of Wood's voyage was printed in London in 1694 by Smith and Walford, printers to the Royal Society (according to a statement by Barrington, _The possibility of approaching the North Pole a.s.serted_, 2nd Edition, London, 1818, p. 34). I have only had an opportunity of seeing extracts from the account of this voyage in _Harris_ and others. ]

[Footnote 156: Barrington published a number of papers on this question, which are collected in the work whose t.i.tle is given above, of which there were two editions. ]

[Footnote 157: At several places in his _Mittheilungen_, 1855-79. ]

[Footnote 158: That thin sheets of ice are formed in clear and calm weather, even in the open sea and over great depths, was observed several times during the expedition of 1868. But when we consider that salt water has no maximum of density situated above the freezing-point, that ice is a bad conductor of heat, and that the clear, newly-formed ice is soon covered by a layer of snow which hinders radiation, it appears to me to be improbable that the ice-covering at deep, open places can become so thick that it is not broken up even by a moderate storm. Even the shallow harbour at Mussel Bay first froze permanently in the beginning of February, and in the end of January the swell in the harbour was so heavy, that all the three vessels of the Swedish Expedition were in danger of being wrecked--_in consequence of the tremendous sea in 80 N.L. in the end of January!_ The sea must then have been open very far to the north-west On the west coast of Spitzbergen the sea in winter is seldom completely frozen within sight of land. Even at Barents' winter haven on the north-east coast of Novaya Zemlya, the sea during the coldest season of the year was often free of ice, and Hudson's statement, "that it is not surprising that the navigator falls in with so much ice in the North Atlantic, when there are so many sounds and bays on Spitzbergen," shows that even he did not believe in any ice being formed in the open sea. ]

CHAPTER VI.

The North-east Voyages of the Russians and Norwegians-- Rodivan Ivanov, 1690--The great Northern Expedition, 1734-37 --The supposed richness in metals of Novaya Zemlya-- Juschkov, 1757--Savva Loschkin, 1760--Rossmuislov, 1768-- Lasarev, 1819--Lutke, 1821-24--Ivanov, 1822-28-- Pachtussov, 1832-35--Von Baer, 1837--Zivolka and Moissejev, 1838-39--Von Krusenstern, 1860-62--The Origin and History of the Polar Sea Hunting--Carlsen, 1868--Ed. Johannesen, 1869-70--Ulve, Mack, and Quale, 1870--Mack, 1871-- Discovery of the Relics of Barents' wintering--Tobiesen's wintering, 1872-73--The Swedish Expeditions, 1875 and 1876 --Wiggins, 1876--Later Voyages to and from the Yenisej.

From what I have stated above it follows that the coast population of North Russia earned on an active navigation on the Polar Sea long before the English and the Dutch, and that commercial expeditions were often undertaken from the White Sea and the Petchora to the Ob and the Yenisej, sometimes wholly by sea round Yalmal, but most frequently partly by sea and partly by land transport over that peninsula. In the latter case the Russians went to work in the following way; they first sailed through Yugor Straits, and over the southern part of the Kara Sea to the mouth of the Mutnaja, a river debouching on Yalmal; they then rowed or towed the boats up the river and over two lakes to a ridge about 350 metres broad, which forms the watershed on Yalmal between the rivers running west and those running east; over this ridge the boats and the goods were dragged to another lake, Selennoe, from which they were finally carried down the River Selennaja to the Gulf of Obi.[159]

These and similar accounts were collected with great difficulty, and not without danger, by the Muscovy Company's envoys; but among the accounts that have been thus preserved we do not find a single sketch of any special voyage, on the ground of which we could place a Russian name beside that of Willoughby, Burrough, Pet and Barents in the older history of the North-East Pa.s.sage. The historical sources of Russia too must be similarly incomplete in this respect, to judge from the otherwise instructive historical introduction to Lutke's voyage. Gallant seamen, but no Hakluyt, were born during the sixteenth and seventeenth century on the sh.o.r.es of the White Sea, and therefore the names of these seamen and the story of their voyages have long since fallen into complete obscurity, excepting some in comparatively recent times.

In the second edition of Witsen's great work we find, at page 913, an account of an unsuccessful hunting voyage to the Kara Sea, undertaken in 1690, that is to say, at a time when voyages between the White Sea and the Obi and Yenisej were on the point of ceasing completely. The account was drawn up by Witsen from an oral communication by one of the shipwrecked men, Rodivan Ivanov, who was for several years mate on a Russian vessel, employed in seal-fishing on the coast of Novaya Zemlya and Vaygats Island.

On the 11th/1st September this Rodivan Ivanov suffered shipwreck with two vessels on Serapoa Koska (Serapov's Bank), probably situated in the Southern part of the Kara Sea. The ice was thrown up here in winter into lofty ice-casts with such a crashing noise that "the world was believed to be coming to an end," and at high water with a strong breeze the whole island was submerged with the exception of some knolls. On one of these the winter house was erected. It was built of clay, which was kneaded with the blood and hair of the seal and walrus. This mixture hardened to a solid ma.s.s, of which the walls were built with the help of boards from the vessel. The house thus afforded good protection not only from cold and bad weather, but also from bears. A furnace was also built inside the house and fired with driftwood collected on the beach.

Train oil from the captured animals was used for lighting. There wintered here fifteen men in all, of whom eleven died of scurvy.

Want of exercise perhaps mainly conduced to bring on this disease.

For most of them did not leave the house during the winter night, five weeks long. Those were most healthy who had most exercise, as, for instance, the mate, who was the youngest among the crew, and therefore had to go round the island to collect wood. Another cause of the great mortality was the total want of provisions brought from home. For the first eight days their food consisted of seaweed dredged up from the bottom of the sea, with which some meal was mixed. Afterwards they ate the flesh of the seal and walrus, and of the Polar bear and the fox. The flesh of the bear and the walrus, however, was considered _unclean_[160] on which account it was eaten only in case of necessity, and the flesh of the fox had an unpleasant flavour. Sometimes the want of food was so great that they were compelled to eat the leather of their boots and furs. The number of the seals and walruses which they caught was so great, "that the killed animals, laid together, would have formed a heap ninety fathoms in length, of the same breadth, and six feet high."[161] They found, besides, on the island a stranded whale.

In spring Samoyeds came from the mainland, and plundered the Russians of part of their catch. Probably for fear of the Samoyeds, the surviving hunters did not go over the ice to the mainland, but remained on the desert island until by a fortunate accident they were rescued by some of their countrymen engaged in a hunting expedition. In connection with the account of this voyage Witsen states that the previous year a Russian hunting vessel stranded _east of the Ob_.

It is probable that towards the close of the sixteenth century the Russian hunting voyages to Novaya Zemlya had already fallen off considerably. The commercial voyages perhaps had long before altogether ceased. It appears as if after the complete conquest of Siberia the land route over the Ural mountains, formerly regarded with such superst.i.tious feelings, was preferred to the unsafe sea route across the Kara Sea, and as if the Government even put obstacles in the way of the latter by setting watches at Matvejev Island and at Yugor Straits.[162] These were to receive payments from the hunters and merchants, and the regulations and exactions connected with this arrangement deprived the Polar Sea voyages of just that charm which had hitherto induced the bravest and hardiest of the population to devote themselves to the dangerous traffic to the Ob, and to the employment of hunting, in which they were exposed to so many dangers, and subject to so great privations.

The circ.u.mstance to which we have referred may also be the reason why we do not know of a single voyage in this part of the Polar Sea during the period which elapsed from the voyage of Rodivan Ivanov to "the great Northern Expedition." It examined, among other parts of the widely extended north coast of the Russian empire, the southern portion also of the navigable waters here in question, in the years 1734, 35, under Muravjev and Paulov, and in 1736, 37 under Malygin, Skuratov, and Suchotin. Their main working field however did not lie here, but in Siberia itself; and I shall give an account of their voyages in the Kara Sea further on, when I come to treat of the development of our knowledge of the north coast of Asia. Here I will only state that they actually succeeded, after untold exertions, in penetrating from the White Sea to the Ob, and that the maps of the land between that river and the Petchora, which are still in use, are mainly grounded on the work of the great northern expedition, but that the bad repute of the Kara Sea also arose from the difficulties to which these explorers were exposed, difficulties owing in no small degree to the defective nature of the vessels, and a number of mistakes which were made in connection with their equipment, the choice of the time of sailing, &c.

[Ill.u.s.tration: AMMONITE WITH GOLD l.u.s.tRE. From Novaya Zemlya.