THE DUTCHMEN AND THE SAMOYEDS 11 



broke it. The meeting ended satisfactorily; "after that 

 we took our leaves one of the other with great friend- 

 ship on both sides, and when we were in our pinnace 

 we all put off our hats and bowed to them, sounding 

 our trumpet ; they in their manner saluting us also, 

 and then went to their sledges again." 



Barents was by no means convinced that the strait 

 was impassable, and held out against the opinion of 

 the others for some days, but with the firm ice 

 stretching round in all directions he had to give in, 

 and on the 15th of September the fleet began the 

 voyage home. Much had been expected, and the re- 

 sult was so conspicuous a failure that the States ' 

 General abandoned any further attempt at a north- 

 east passage on their own account, but decided to 

 offer a reward to any private expedition that proved 

 successful. Whereupon the authorities and merchants 

 of Amsterdam fitted out two vessels for a third 

 voyage, giving the command of one to Jan Corne- 

 liszoon Rijp, and that of the other to Jacob van 

 Heemskerck, with Barents as chief pilot. 



The ships left the Dutch coast on the 18th of May. 

 Four days afterwards they were off the Shetlands, 

 going north-east. On the 9th of June they discovered 

 an island, on which they landed. Here they saw a 

 prodigious white bear, which they went after in a boat, 

 intending to slip a noose over her neck, but when they 

 were near her she looked so strong that their courage 

 failed, and they returned to the ships to fetch more 

 men, and what seems to have been quite an armoury 

 of " muskets, harquebusses, halberds and hatchets." 

 Accompanied by another boat they attacked this 



