The Voyage Of The Vega Round Asia And Europe Part 51

By order of the Board of Admiralty Dmitri Laptev at all events began his second voyage, and now falsified his own prediction, by rounding the two capes which he believed to be always surrounded by unbroken ice. After he had pa.s.sed them his vessel was frozen in on the 20th/9th September. Laptev had no idea at what point of the coast he was, or how far he was from land. He remained in this unpleasant state for eleven days, at the close of which one of the mates who had been sent out from the vessel in a boat on the 11th Sept./31st Aug. returned on foot over the ice and reported that they were not far from the mouth of the Indigirka. Several Yakuts had settled on the neighbouring coast, where was also a Russian _simovie_. Laptev and his men wintered there, and examined the surrounding country.

The surveyor KINDaKOV was sent out to map the coast to the Kolyma.

Among other things he observed that the sea here was very shallow near the sh.o.r.e, and that driftwood was wanting at the mouth of the Indigirka, but was found in large ma.s.ses in the interior, 30 versts from the coast.

The following year, 1740, Laptev repaired as well as he could his vessel, which had been injured during the voyage of the preceding year, and then went again to sea on the 11th Aug./31st July. On the 14th/3rd August he pa.s.sed one of the Bear Islands, fixing its lat.i.tude at 71 0'. On the 25th/14th August, when Great Cape Baranov was reached, the progress of the vessel was arrested by ma.s.ses of ice that extended as far as the eye could reach. Laptev now turned and sought for winter quarters on the Kolyma. On the 19th/8th July, 1741, this river became open, and Laptev went to sea to continue his voyage eastwards, but did not now succeed in rounding Great Cape Baranov. He was now fully convinced of the impossibility of reaching the Anadyr by sea, on which account he determined to penetrate to that river by land in order to survey it.

This he did in the years 1741 and 1742. Thus ended the voyages of Dmitri Laptev, giving evidence if not of distinguished seamanship, of great perseverance, undaunted resolution, and fidelity to the trust committed to him.[326]

6. _Voyage for the purpose of exploring and surveying the coast of America_--For this purpose Behring fitted out at Okotsk two vessels, of which he himself took the command of one, _St. Paul_, while the other, _St. Peter_, was placed under CHIRIKOV. They left Okotsk in 1740, and being prevented by shoal water from entering Bolschaja Reka, they both wintered in Avatscha Bay, whose excellent haven was called, from the names of the ships, Port Peter-Paul. On the 15th/4th June they left this haven, the naturalist GEORG WILHELM STELLER having first gone on board Behring's and the astronomer LOUIS DE L'ISLE DE LA CROYeRE Chirikov's vessel. The course was shaped at first for the S.S.E., but afterwards, when no land could be discovered in this direction, for the N.E. and E. During a storm on the 1st July/20th June the vessels were separated. On the 29th/18th July Behring reached the coast of America in 58 to 59 N.L. A short distance from the sh.o.r.e Steller discovered here a splendid volcano, which was named St. Elias. The coast was inhabited, but the inhabitants fled when the vessel approached. From this point Behring wished to sail in a north-westerly direction to that promontory of Asia which formed the turning-point of his first voyage. It was however only with difficulty that in the almost constant fog the peninsula of Alaska could be rounded and the vessel could sail forward among the Aleutian island groups. Scurvy now broke out among the crew, and the commander himself suffered severely from it, on which account the command was mainly in the hands of Lieut. WAXEL. At an island the explorers came into contact with the natives, who at first were quite friendly, until one of them was offered brandy. He tasted the liquor, and was thereby so terrified that no gifts could calm his uneasiness. On this account those of the crew who were on land were ordered to come on board, but the savages wished to detain their guests. At last the Russians were set free, but a Koryak whom they had taken with them as an interpreter was kept behind. In order to get him set at liberty, Waxel ordered two musket salvos to be fired over the heads of the natives, with the result that they all fell flat down from fright, and the Koryak had an opportunity of making his escape. Now the fire-water is a liquor in great request among these savages, and they are not frightened at the firing of salvos of musketry.

During the following months Behring's vessel drifted about without any distinct plan, in the sea between Alaska and Kamchatka, in nearly constant fog, and in danger of stranding on some of the many unknown rocks and islands which were pa.s.sed. On the 5th November the vessel was anch.o.r.ed at an island afterwards called Behring Island.

Soon however a great wave arose which threw the vessel on land and crushed it against the rocky coast of the island. Of the wintering there, which, through Steller's taking part in it, became of so great importance for natural history, I shall give an account further on in connection with the narrative of our visit to Behring Island. Here I shall only remind the reader that Behring died of scurvy on the 19th/8th December, and that in the course of the voyage great part of his crew fell a sacrifice to the same disease.

In spring the survivors built a new vessel out of the fragments of the old, and on the 27th/16th of August they sailed away from the island where they had undergone so many sufferings, and came eleven days after to a haven on Kamchatka.

After parting from Behring, Chirikov on the 26th/15th July sighted the coast of America in 56 N.L. The mate ABRAHAM DEMENTIEV was then sent ash.o.r.e in the longboat, which was armed with a cannon and manned by ten well-armed men. When he did not return, another boat was sent after him. But this boat too did not come back.

Probably the boats' crews were taken prisoners and killed by the Indians. After making another attempt to find his lost men, Chirikov determined to return to Kamchatka. He first sailed some distance northwards along the coast of America without being able to land, as both the vessel's boats were lost. Great scarcity of drinking-water was thus occasioned, which was felt the more severely as the return voyage was very protracted on account of head-winds and fog. During the voyage twenty-one men perished, among them de l'Isle de la Croyere, who died, as is said often to be the case with scurvy patients, on board ship, while he was being carried from his bed up on deck to be put on land.[327]

The voyages of Behring and Chirikov, attended as they were by the sacrifice of so many human lives, gave us a knowledge of the position of North-western America in relation to that of North-eastern Asia, and led to the discovery of the long volcanic chain of islands between the Alaska peninsula and Kamchatka.

7. _Voyages to j.a.pan_--For these Captain SPANGBERG ordered a _hucker_, the _Erkeengeln Michael_, and a double sloop, the _Nadeschda_, to be built at Okotsk, the old vessel _Gabriel_ being at the same time repaired for the same purpose. Spangberg himself took command of the _Michael_, that of the double sloop was given to Lieutenant WALTON, and of the _Gabriel_ to Midshipman CHELTINGA.

Drift-ice prevented a start until midsummer, and on that account nothing more could be done the first year (1738) than to examine the Kurile Islands to the 46th degree of lat.i.tude. From this point the vessels returned to Kamchatka, where they wintered at Bolschaja Reka. On the 2nd June/22nd May, 1739, Spangberg with his little fleet again left this haven. All the vessels kept together at first, until in a violent storm attended with fog Spangberg and Cheltinga were parted from Walton. Both made a successful voyage to j.a.pan and landed at several places, being always well received by the natives, who appeared to be very willing to have dealings with the foreigners. During the return voyage Spangberg landed in 43 50' N.L. on a large island north of Nippon. Here he saw the Aino race, enigmatical as to its origin, distinguished by an exceedingly abundant growth of hair and beard which sometimes extends over the greater part of the body. Spangberg returned to Okotsk on the 9th November/20th October. Walton sailed along the coast in a southerly direction to 33 48' N.L. Here was a town with 1,500 houses, where the Russian seafarers were received in a very friendly way even in private houses. Walton subsequently landed at two other places on the coast, returning afterwards to Okotsk, where he anch.o.r.ed on the 1st September/21st August.[328]

The very splendid results of Spangberg's and Walton's voyages by no means corresponded with the maps of Asia constructed by the men who were at that time leaders of the Petersburg Academy. Spangberg therefore during his return journey through Siberia got orders to travel again to the same regions in order to settle the doubts that had arisen. A new vessel had to be built, and with this he started in 1741 from Okotsk to his former winter haven in Kamchatka. Hence he sailed in 1742 in a southerly direction, but he had scarcely pa.s.sed the first of the Kurile Islands when the vessel became so leaky that he was compelled to turn. The second expedition of Spangberg to j.a.pan was thus completely without result, a circ.u.mstance evidently brought about by the unjustified and offensive doubts which led to it, and the arbitrary way in which it was arranged at St. Petersburg.

8 _Journeys in the interior of Siberia_ by Gmelin, Muller, Steller, Krascheninnikov, de l'Isle de la Croyere, &c.--The voyages of these _savants_ have indeed formed an epoch in our knowledge of the ethnography and natural history of North Asia, but the north coast itself they did not touch. An account of them therefore lies beyond the limits of the history which I have undertaken to relate here.

The Great Northern Expedition by these journeys both by sea and land had gained a knowledge of the natural conditions of North Asia based on actual researches, had yielded pretty complete information regarding the boundary of that quarter of the globe towards the north, and of the relative position of the east coast of Asia and the west coast of America, had discovered the Aleutian Islands, and had connected the Russian discoveries in the east with those of the West-Europeans in j.a.pan and China[329]. The results were thus very grand and epoch-making. But these undertakings had also required very considerable sacrifices, and long before they were finished they were looked upon in no favourable light by the Siberian authorities, on account of the heavy burden which the transport of provisions and other equipment through desolate regions imposed upon the country. Nearly twenty years now elapsed before there was a new exploratory expedition in the Siberian Polar Sea worthy of being registered in the history of geography. This time it was a private person, a Yakutsk merchant, SCHALAUROV, who proposed to repeat Deschnev's famous voyage and to gain this end sacrificed the whole of his means and his life itself. Accompanied by an exiled midshipman, IVAN BACHOFF, and with a crew of deserters and deported men, he sailed in 1760 from the Lena out into the Polar Sea, but came the first year only to the Yana, where he wintered. On the 9th August/29th July, 1761, he continued his voyage towards the east, always keeping near the coast. On the 17th/6th September he rounded the dreaded Svjatoinos, sighting on the other side of the sound a high-lying land, Ljachoff's Island. At the Bear Islands, whither he was carried by a favourable wind over an open sea, he first met with drift-ice, although, it appears, not in any considerable quant.i.ty.

But the season was already far advanced, and he therefore considered it most advisable to seek winter quarters at the mouth of the neigbouring Kolyma river. Here he built a s.p.a.cious winter dwelling, which was surrounded by snow ramparts armed with cannon from the vessel, probably the whole house was not so large as a peasant's cabin at home, but it was at all events the grandest palace on the north coast of Asia, often spoken of by later travellers, and regarded by the natives with amazed admiration. In the neighbourhood there was good reindeer hunting and abundant fishing, on which account the winter pa.s.sed so happily, that only one man died of scurvy, an exceedingly favourable state of things for that period.

The following year Schalaurov started on the 1st August/21st July, but calms and constant head-winds prevented him from pa.s.sing Cape Schelagskoj, until he was compelled by the late season of the year to seek for winter quarters. For this he considered the neighbouring coast unsuitable on account of the scarcity of forests and driftwood, he therefore sailed back to the westward until after a great many mishaps he came again at last on the 23rd/12th September to the house which he had built the year before on the Kolyma.

He proposed immediately to make a renewed attempt the following spring to reach his goal. But now his stores were exhausted, and the wearied crew refused to accompany him. In order to obtain funds for a new voyage he travelled to Moscow, and by means of the a.s.sistance he succeeded in procuring there, he commenced in 1766 a voyage from which neither he nor any of his followers returned. c.o.xE mentions several things which tell in favour of his having actually rounded Cape Deschnev and reached the Anadyr. But Wrangel believes that he perished in the neighbourhood of Cape Schelagskoj. For in 1823 the inhabitants of that cape showed Wrangel's companion Matiuschkin a little ruinous house, built east of the river Werkon on the coast of the Polar Sea. For many years back the Chukches travelling past had found there human bones gnawed by beasts of prey, and various household articles, which indicated that shipwrecked men had wintered there, and Wrangel accordingly supposes that it was there that Schalaurov perished a sacrifice to the determination with which he prosecuted his self-imposed task of sailing round the north-eastern promontory of Asia.[330]

In order to ascertain whether any truth lay at the bottom of the view, generally adopted in Siberia, that the continent of America extended along the north coast of Asia to the neighbourhood of the islands situated there, CHICHERIN, Governor of Siberia, in the winter of 1763 sent a sergeant, ANDREJEV with dog-sledges on an ice journey towards the north. He succeeded in reaching some islands of considerable extent, which Wrangel, who always shows himself very sceptical with respect to the existence of new lands and islands in the Polar Sea, considers to have been the Bear Islands. Now it appears to be pretty certain that Andrejev visited a south-westerly continuation of the land named on recent maps "Wrangel Land," which in that case, like the corresponding part of America, forms a collection of many large and small islands. Andrejev found everywhere numerous proofs that the islands which he visited had been formerly inhabited. Among other things he saw a large hut built of wood without the help of iron tools. The logs were as it were gnawed with teeth (hewed with stone axes), and bound together with thongs[331]. Its position and construction indicated that the house had been built for defence, it had thus been found impossible in the desolate legions of the Polar Sea to avoid the discord and the strife which prevail in more southerly lands. To the east and north-east Andrejev thought he saw a distant land, he is also clearly the true European discoverer of Wrangel Land, provided we do not consider that even he had a predecessor in the Cossack, FEODOR TATARINOV, who according to the concluding words of Andrejev's journal appears to have previously visited the same islands. It is highly desirable that this journal, if still in existence, be published _in a completely unaltered form_. How important this is appears from the following paragraph in the instructions given to Billings--"One Sergeant Andrejev saw from the last of the Bear Islands a large island to which they (Andrejev and his companions) travelled in dog-sledges. But they turned when they had gone twenty versts from the coast, because they saw fresh traces of a large number of men, who had travelled in sledges drawn by reindeer."[332]

In order to visit the large land in the north-east seen by Andrejev, there was sent out in the years 1769, 1770, and 1771 another expedition, consisting of the three surveyors, LEONTIEV, LUSSOV, and PUSCHKAREV, with dog-sledges over the ice to the north-east, but they succeeded neither in reaching the land in question, nor even ascertaining with certainty whether it actually existed or not. Among the natives, however, the belief in it was maintained very persistently, and they even knew how to give names to the tribes inhabiting it.

The New Siberian Islands, which previously had often been seen by travellers along the coast, were visited the first time in 1770 by LJACHOFF, who besides Ljachoff's island lying nearest the coast, also discovered the islands Maloj and Kotelnoj. On this account he obtained an exclusive right to collect mammoth tusks there, a branch of industry which since that time appears to have been earned on in these remote regions with no inconsiderable profit. The importance of the discovery led the government some years after to send thither a land surveyor, CHVOINOV,[333] by whom the islands were surveyed, and some further information obtained regarding the remarkable natural conditions in that region. According to Chvoinov the ground there consists at many places of a mixture of ice and sand with mammoth tusks, bones of a fossil species of ox, of the rhinoceros, &c. At many places one can literally roll off the carpet-like bed of moss from the ground, when it is found that the close, green vegetable covering has clear ice underlying it, a circ.u.mstance which I have also observed at several places in the Polar regions. The new islands were rich not only in ivory, but also in foxes with valuable skins, and other spoils of the chase of various kinds. They therefore formed for a time the goal of various hunters'

expeditions. Among these hunters may be named SANNIKOV, who in 1805 discovered the islands s...o...b..voj and Faddejev, SIROVATSKOJ, who in 1806 discovered Novaya Sibir, and BJELKOV, who in 1808 discovered the small islands named after him. In the meantime disputes arose about the hunting monopoly, especially after Bjelkov and others pet.i.tioned for permission to establish on Kotelnoj Island _a hunting and trading station_. (?)[334] This induced ROMANZOV, then Chancellor of Russia, to order once more these distant territories to be explored by HEDENSTRoM,[335] a Siberian exile, who had formerly been secretary to some eminent man in St. Petersburg. He started in dog-sledges on the 19th/7th March, 1809, from Ustjansk going over the ice to Ljachoff's Island, and thence to Faddejev Island, where the expedition was divided into two parts. Hedenstrom continued his course to Novaya Sibir, the south coast of which he surveyed. Here he discovered among other things the remarkable "tree mountain,"

which I have before mentioned. His companions KOSCHEVIN and SANNIKOV explored Faddejev, Maloj and Ljachoff's Islands. On Faddejev, Sannikov found a Yukagir sledge, stone skin-sc.r.a.pers, and an axe made of mammoth ivory, whence he drew the conclusion that the island was inhabited before the Russians introduced iron among the savage tribes of Siberia.

The explorations thus commenced were continued in 1810. The explorers started on the 14th/2nd March from the mouth of the Indigirka, and after eleven days' journey came to Novaya Sibir. It had been Hedenstrom's original intention to employ reindeer and horses in exploring the islands, but he afterwards abandoned this plan, fearing that he would not find pasture for his draught animals. Both Hedenstrom and Sannikov believed that they saw from the north coast of the island bluish mountains on the horizon in the north-east. In order to reach this new land the former undertook a journey over the ice. It was so uneven, however, that in four days he could only penetrate about seventy versts. Here on the 9th April/28th March, he met with quite open water, which appeared to extend to the Bear Islands, _i.e._ for a distance of about 500 versts. He therefore turned southward, and reached the mainland after forty-three days' very difficult travelling over the ice.

During the journey Hedenstrom was saved from famine by his success in killing eleven Polar bears. A new attempt, which he made the same spring to reach with dog-sledges the unknown land in the north-east, was also without result in consequence of his meeting with broad, impa.s.sable "leads" and openings in the ice, but even on this occasion he believed that he found many indications of the existence of an extensive land in the direction named. It was only with great difficulty that on the 20th/8th May he succeeded in reaching the mainland at Cape Baranov over very weak ice.

The same year Sannikov explored Kotelnoj Island, where he fell in with Bjelkov and several hunters, who had settled for the summer on the west coast of the island to collect mammoth tusks and hunt foxes there. He found also a Greek cross erected on the beach and the remains of a vessel, which, to judge from its construction and the hunting implements scattered about in the neighbourhood, appeared to have belonged to an Archangel hunter, who had been driven by wind or ice from Spitzbergen or Novaya Zemlya.

Next summer "the Hedenstrom expeditions" were concluded with the survey of the north coast of Novaya Sibir by CHENIZYN, and by a repet.i.tion of the attempt to penetrate from Cape Kamennoj over the ice in a north-easterly direction, this time carried out by the Cossack TATARINOV, and finally by a renewed exploration of Faddejev Island by Sannikov. Tatarinov found the ice, probably in the end of March, so thin, that he did not dare to proceed farther, and beyond the thin ice the sea was seen to be quite open. Sannikov first explored Faddejev Island. He thought he saw from the hills of the island a high land in the north-east, but when he attempted to reach it over the ice, he came upon open water twenty-five versts from land. He therefore returned the same spring to Ustjansk in order there to equip a caravan consisting of twenty-three reindeer, which started on the 14th/2nd May to go over the ice to Kotelnoj Island, which could be reached only with great difficulty in consequence of "leads" in the ice and the large quant.i.ty of salt water which had acc.u.mulated upon it. The reindeer were exceedingly enfeebled, but recovered rapidly on reaching land, so that Sannikov was able under specially favourable circ.u.mstances to make a large number of interesting excursions, among others one across the island. He stated that on the heights in the interior of it there were found skulls and bones of horses, oxen, "buffaloes" (Ovibos?) and sheep in so large numbers, that it was evident that whole herds of gramimvora had lived there in former times. Mammoth bones were also found everywhere on the island, whence Sannikov drew the conclusions, that all these animals had lived at the same time, and that since then the climate had considerably deteriorated. These suppositions he considered to be further confirmed by the fact that large, partially petrified tree-stems were found scattered about on the island in still greater numbers than on Novaya Sibir[336]. Besides he found here everywhere remains of old "Yukagir dwellings"; the island had thus once been inhabited. After Sannikov had fetched Chenitzyn from Faddejev Island, where he had pa.s.sed the summer in great want of provisions, and ordered him, who was probably a greater adept at the pen, to draw up a report of his own interesting researches, he commenced his return journey on the 8th Nov./27th Oct. and arrived at Ustjansk on the 24th/12th November.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PETER FEODOROVITSCH ANJOU. Born in 1798 in Russia, died in 1869 in St. Petersburg. ]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FERDINAND VON WRANGEL. Born in 1790 at Pskov, died in 1870 at Dorpat. ]

It may be said that through Hedenstrom's and Sannikov's exceedingly remarkable Polar journeys, the t.i.tles have been written of many important chapters in the history of the former and recent condition of our globe. But the inquirer has. .h.i.therto waited in vain for these chapters being completed through new researches carried out with improved appliances. For since then the New Siberian Islands have not been visited by any scientific expedition. Only in 1823 ANJOU, lieutenant in the Russian Navy, with the surgeon FIGURIN, and the mate ILGIN, made a new attempt to penetrate over the ice to the supposed lands in the north and north-east, but without success.

Similar attempts were made at the same time from the Siberian mainland by another Russian naval officer, FERDINAND VON WRANGEL, accompanied by Dr. KuBER, midshipman MATIUSCHKIN, and mate KOSMIN.

They too were unsuccessful in penetrating over the ice far from the coast. Wrangel returned fully convinced that all the accounts which were current in Siberia of the land he wished to visit, and which now bears the name of Wrangel Land, were based on legends, mistake, and intentional untruths. But Anjou and Wrangel did an important service to Polar research by showing that the sea, even in the neighbourhood of the Pole of cold, is not covered with any strong and continuous sheet of ice, even at that season of the year when cold reaches its maximum. By the attempts made nearly at the same time by Wrangel and Parry to penetrate farther northwards, the one from the north coasts of Siberia, and the other from those of Spitzbergen, Polar travellers for the first time got a correct idea how uneven and impa.s.sable ice is on a frozen sea, how little the way over such a sea resembles the even polished surface of a frozen lake, over which we dwellers in the north are accustomed to speed along almost with the velocity of the wind. Wrangel's narrative at the same time forms an important source of knowledge both of preceding journeys and of the recent natural conditions on the north coast of Asia, as is only too evident from the frequent occasions on which I have quoted his work in my sketch of the voyage of the _Vega_.

It remains for me now to enumerate some voyages from Behring's Straits westward into the Siberian Polar Sea.

1778 _and_ 1779--During the third of his famous circ.u.mnavigations of the globe JAMES COOK penetrated through Behring's Straits into the Polar Sea, and then along the north-east coast of Asia westwards to Irkaipij, called by him Cape North. Thus the honour of having carried the first seagoing vessel to this sea also belongs to the great navigator. He besides confirmed Behring's determination of the position of the East Cape of Asia, and himself determined the position of the opposite coast of America.[337] The same voyage was approximately repeated the year after Cook's death by his successor CHARLES CLARKE, but without any new discoveries being made in the region in question.

1785-94.--The success which attended Cook in his exploratory voyages and the information, unlooked for even by the Russian government, which c.o.xe's work gave concerning the voyages of the Russian hunters in the North Pacific, led to the equipment of a grand new expedition, having for its object the further exploration of the sea which bounds the great Russian Empire on the north and east. The plan was drawn up by Pallas and c.o.xe, and the carrying out of it was entrusted to an English naval officer in the Russian service, J.

BILLINGS, who had taken part in Cook's last voyage. Among the many others who were members of the expedition, may be mentioned Dr.

MERK, Dr. ROBECK, the secretary MARTIN SAUER, and the Captains HALL, SARYTCHEV, and BEHRING the younger, in all more than a hundred persons. The expedition was fitted out on a very large scale, but in consequence of Billings' unfitness for having the command of such an expedition the result by no means corresponded to what might reasonably have been expected. The expedition made an inconsiderable excursion into the Polar Sea from the 30th/19th June to the 9th Aug/29th July 1787, and in 1791 Billings sailed up to St. Lawrence Bay, from which he went over land with eleven men to Yakutsk. The rest of this lengthened expedition does not concern the regions now in question.[338]

Among voyages during the century it remains to give account of those which have been made by OTTO VON KOTZEBUE, who during his famous circ.u.mnavigation of the globe in 1815-18, among other things also pa.s.sed through Behring's Straits and discovered the strata, remarkable in a geological point of view, at Eschscholz Bay; LuTKe, who during his circ.u.mnavigation of the globe in 1826-29, visited the islands and sound in the neighbourhood of Chukotskoj-nos; MOORE, who wintered at Chukotskoj-nos in 1848-49, and gave us much interesting information as to the mode of life of the Namollos and Chukches; KELLET, who in 1849 discovered Kellet Land and Herald Island on the coast of Wrangel Land; JOHN RODGERS, who in 1855 carried out for the American government much important hydrographical work in the seas on both sides of Behring's Straits; DALLMANN, who during a trading voyage in the Behring Sea landed at various points on Wrangel Land; LONG, who in 1867, as captain of the whaling barque _Nile_, discovered the sound between Wrangel Land and the mainland (Long Sound) and penetrated from Behring's Straits westwards farther than any of his predecessors, DALL, who, at the same time that we are indebted to him for many important contributions to the knowledge of the natural conditions of the Behring Sea, also anew examined the ice-strata at Eschscholz Bay, and many others--but as the historical part of the sketch of the voyage of the _Vega_ has already occupied more s.p.a.ce than was calculated upon, I consider myself compelled with respect to the voyages of these explorers to refer to the numerous and for the most part accessible writings which have already been published regarding them.[339]

Was the _Vega_ actually the first, and is she at the moment when this is being written, the only vessel that has sailed from the Atlantic by the north to the Pacific? As follows from the above narrative, this question may perhaps be answered with considerable certainty in the affirmative, as it may also with truth be maintained that no vessel has gone the opposite way from the Pacific to the Atlantic.[340] But the fict.i.tious literature of geography at all events comprehends accounts of various voyages between those seas by the north pa.s.sage, and I consider myself obliged briefly to enumerate them.

The first is said to have been made as early as 1555 by a Portuguese, MARTIN CHACKE, who affirmed that he had been parted from his companions by a west wind, and had been driven forward between various islands to the entrance of a sound which ran north of America in 59 N.L.; finally that he had come S.W. of Iceland, and thence sailed to Lisbon, arriving there before his companions, who took the "common way," _i.e._ south of Africa. In 1579 an English pilot certified that he had read in Lisbon in 1567 a printed account of this voyage, which however he could not procure afterwards because all the copies had been destroyed by order of the king, who considered that such a discovery would have an injurious effect on the Indian trade of Portugal (_Purchas_, iii. p. 849). We now know that there is land where Chacke's channel was said to be situated, and it is also certain that the sound between the continent of America and the Franklin archipelago lying much farther to the north was already in the sixteenth century too much filled with ice for its being possible that an account of meeting with ice could be omitted from a true sketch of a voyage along the north coast of America.

In 1588 a still more remarkable voyage was said to have been made by the Portuguese, LORENZO FERRER MALDONADO. He is believed to have been a cosomographer who among other tilings concerned himself with the still unsolved problem, of making a compa.s.s free from variation, and with the question, very difficult in his time, of finding a method of determining the longitude at sea (see the work of AMORETTI quoted below, p. 38). Of his imaginary voyage he has written a long narrative, of which a _Spanish_ copy with some drawings and maps was found in a library at Milan. The narrative was published in Italian and French translations by the superintendent of the library, Chevalier CARLO AMORETTI,[341] who besides added to the work a number of his own learned notes, which however do not give evidence of experience in Arctic waters. The same narrative has since been published in English by J. BARROW (_A Cronological History of Voyages into the Arctic Regions_, &c., London, 1818 App. p. 24.) The greater part of Maldonado's report consists of a detailed plan as to the way in which the new sea route would be used and fortified by the Spanish-Portuguese government.[342] The voyage itself is referred to merely in pa.s.sing. Maldonado says that, in the beginning of March he sailed from Newfoundland along the north coast of America in a westward direction. Cold, storm, and darkness, were at first very inconvenient for navigation, but at all events he reached without difficulty "Anian Sound," which separates Asia from America. This is described in detail. Here various ships were met with prepared to sail through the sound, laden with Chinese goods. The crews appeared to be Russian or Hanseatic. Conversation was carried on with them in Latin. They stated that they came from a very large town, situated a little more than a hundred leagues from the sound. In the middle of June Maldonado returned by the way he came to the Atlantic, and on this occasion too the voyage was performed without the least difficulty. The heat at sea during the return journey was as great as when it was greatest in Spain, and meeting with ice is not mentioned. The banks of the river which falls into the haven at Anian Sound (according to Amoretti, identical with Behring's Straits) were overgrown with very large trees, bearing fruit all the year round among the animals met with in the regions seals are mentioned, but also two kinds of swine, buffaloes, &c. All these absurdities show that the whole narrative of the voyage was fict.i.tious, having been probably written with the view of thereby giving more weight to the proposal to send out a north-west expedition from Portugal, and in the full belief that the supposed sound actually existed, and that the voyage along the north coast of America would be as easy of accomplishment as one across the North Sea.[343] The way in which the icing down of a vessel is described indicates that the narrator himself or his informant had been exposed to a winter storm in some northern sea, probably at Newfoundland, and the spirited sketch of the sound appears to have been borrowed from some East Indian traveller, who had been driven by storm to northern j.a.pan, and who in a channel between the islands in that region believed that he had discovered the fabulous Anian Sound.

Of a third voyage in 1660 a naval officer named DE LA MADELeNE gave in 1701 the following short account, probably picked up in Holland or Portugal, to Count DE PONTCHARTRIN: "The Portuguese, DAVID MELGUER, started from j.a.pan on the 14th March, 1660, with the vessel _le Pere eternel_, and following the coast of Tartary, _i.e._ the east coast of Asia, he first sailed north to 84 N.L. Thence he shaped his course between Spitzbergen and Greenland, and pa.s.sing west of Scotland and Ireland came again to Oporto in Portugal." M. de la Madelene's narrative is to be found reproduced in M. BUACHE'S excellent geographical paper "Sui les differentes idees qu'on a eues de la traversee de la Mere Glaciale arctique et sur les communications ou jonctions qu'on a supposees entre diverses rivieres." (_Historie de l'Academie, Annee 1754_, Paris, 1759, _Memoires_, p. 12) The paper is accompanied by a Polar map constructed by Buache himself, which, though the voyage which led to its construction was clearly fict.i.tious, and though it also contains many other errors--for instance, the statement that the Dutch penetrated in 1670 to the north part of Taimur Land--is yet very valuable and interesting as a specimen of what a learned and critical geographer knew in 1754 about the Polar regions. That Melguer's voyage is fict.i.tious is shown partly by the ease with which he is said to have gone from the one sea to the other, partly by the fact that _the only detail_ which is to be found in his narrative, viz. the statement that the coast of Tartary extends to 84 N.L., is incorrect.

All these and various other similar accounts of north-east, north-west, or Polar pa.s.sages achieved by vessels in former times have this in common, that navigation from the one ocean to the other across the Polar Sea is said to have gone on as easily as drawing a line on the map, that meeting with ice and northern animals of the chase is never spoken of, and finally that every particular which is noted is in conflict with the known geographical, climatal, and natural conditions of the Arctic seas. All these narratives therefore can be proved to be fict.i.tious, and to have been invented by persons who never made any voyages in the true Polar Seas.

The _Vega_ is thus the first vessel that has penetrated by the north from one of the great world-oceans to the other.

[Footnote 289: I quote this because the movement of the tides is still, in our own time, made use of to determine whether certain parts of the Polar seas are connected with each other or not. ]

[Footnote 290: Marco Polo, in 1271, at the age of seventeen or eighteen, accompanied his father Nicol, and his uncle Maffeo Polo, to High Asia. He remained there until 1295 and during that time came into great favor with Kubla Khan, who employed him, among other things, in a great number of important public commissions, whereby he became well acquainted with the widely extended lands which lay under the sceptre of that ruler. After his return home he caused a great sensation by the riches he brought with him, which procured him the name _il Millione_, a name however which, according to others, was an expression of the doubts that were long entertained regarding the truthfulness of his, as we now know, mainly true accounts of the number of the people and the abundance of wealth in Kublai Khan's lands. "Il Millione," in the meantime, became a popular carnival character, whose cue was to relate as many and as wonderful "yarns" as possible, and in his narratives to deal preferably with millions. It is possible that the predecessor of Columbus might have descended to posterity merely as the original of this character if he had not, soon after his return home, taken part in a war against Genoa, in the course of which he was taken prisoner, and, during his imprisonment, related his recollections of his travels to a fellow-prisoner, who committed them to writing, in what language is still uncertain. The work attracted great attention and was soon spread, first in written copies, then by the press in a large number of different languages. It has not been translated into Swedish, but in the Royal Library in Stockholm there is a very important and hitherto little known ma.n.u.script of it from the middle of the fourteenth century, of which an edition is in course of publication in photo-lithographic facsimile. ]

[Footnote 291: Homines illius regionis sunt pulchri, magni, et corpulenti, sed sunt multum pallidi. . . . et sunt homines inculti, et immorigerati et b.e.s.t.i.a.liter viventes. ]

[Footnote 292: See note at page 54, vol i., for an account of von Herberstein and his works. ]

[Footnote 293: As the copy of the original map to which I have had access, being coloured, is unsuitable for photo-lithographing, I give here instead a photo-lithographic reproduction of the map in the Italian edition printed in 1550. The map itself is unchanged in any essential particular, but the drawing and engraving are better.

There is, besides, a still older map of Russia in the first edition of Sebastian Munster's _Cosmographia Universalis_. I have not had access to this edition, but have had to the third edition of the same work printed at Basel in 1550. A very incomplete map of Russia engraved on wood, on which, however, the Obi and the "Sybir" are to be found, is inserted in this work at page 910. The Dwina here falls not into the White Sea but into the Gulf of Finland, through a lake to which the name Ladoga is now given; places like Astracan, Asof, Viborg, Calmahori (Kolmogor), Solowki (Solovets), &c., are indicated pretty correctly, and in the White Sea there is to be seen a very faithful representation of a walrus swimming. ]

[Footnote 294: The river Ob is mentioned the first time in 1492, in the negotiations which the Austrian amba.s.sador, Michael Snups, carried on in Moscow in order to obtain permission to travel in the interior of Russia (Adelung, _Uebersicht der Reisenden in Russland_, p. 157). ]

[Footnote 295: As before stated, Marco Polo mentions Polar bears but not walruses. ]

[Footnote 296: Herodotus places Andropagi in nearly the same regions which are now inhabited by the Samoyeds. Pliny also speaks of man-eating Scythians. ]

[Footnote 297: Arctic literature contains a nearly contemporaneous sketch of the first Russian-Siberian commercial undertakings, _Beschryvinghe vander Samoyeden Landt in Tartarien, nieulijcks onder't ghebiedt der Moscoviten gebracht. Wt de Russche tale overgheset_, Anno 1609. Amsterdam, Hessel Gerritsz, 1612; inserted in Latin, in 1613, in the same publisher's _Descriptio ac Delineatio Geographica Detectionis Freti_ (Photo-lithographic reproduction, by Frederick Muller, Amsterdam, 1878). The same work, or more correctly, collection of small geographical pamphlets, contains also Isak Ma.s.sa's map of the coast of the Polar Sea between the Kola peninsula and the Pjasina, which I have reproduced. ]