]42 DISCOVERIES OF 1594. 



by graves with dead men's bones, the coffins fdled 

 with stones. They also discovered the wreck of a 

 Russian ship with a keel forty feet long. To this 

 '' faire haven" they gave the name of Meal- 

 harbour, in gratitude for the rehef it afforded 

 them. On the 15th they arrived at the two 

 islands called Matfloe and Delgoy, where they 

 met with the Zealand and Enkhuysen ships, which 

 had repassed Waigatz strait, on their return, the 

 same day, and from whom they learned that the 

 latter had been as far to the eastward, according 

 to their conjecture, as the river Obe ; that they 

 were not far from Cape Tabin, which is the point 

 of Tartary that reached to^^ards the kingdom 

 of Cathaia, and that, south-east from Waigatz, 

 they had discovered a small island, to which they 

 eave the name ofStaaten Island, and that '^ there 

 they found many stones that were of christall 

 mountayne, being a kind of diamond." From 

 hence the three ships set sail together, and arrived 

 in the Texel, as before mentioned, on the l6th 

 September. 



WILLIAM BARENTZ — Sccond Voyage. 1.595. 



Prince Maurice and the States-General of the 

 United Provinces entertained the most sanguine 

 hopes, from the report of Linschoten in particular, 

 of an eastern passage to China. They accordingly 

 caused a fleet of seven ships to be fitted out for 



