SETTLEMENT AT SPITZBERGEN ATTEMPTED. 163 



others were erected upon the Norways, and 

 Dane's Island in its immediate vicinity. Nothing 

 now remained but to induce some persons to 

 inhabit these establishments in order to their 

 becoming regular settlements; and, as an en- 

 couragement to settlers, large rewards were held 

 out by the Russia company to any persons 

 who would pass one entire year in their pos- 

 sessions ; but none were found willing to endure 

 the privations of such a banishment, or to 

 expose their lives in so hazardous an under- 

 taking. Failing in this, they obtained from 

 the government the promise of a reprieve to 

 any culprits who would volunteer, and actually 

 perform this service; and accordingly several, 

 in order to escape the extreme sentence of the 

 law, accepted of the offer, and were carried to 

 the place. But when they arrived on the spot, 

 and were landed, they were so struck with 

 horror at the desolate appearance of their 

 intended abode, and with the hopeless pro- 

 spect which it presented, that they begged to be 

 taken back again, declaring they would rather 

 undergo the penalty of their crimes than subject 

 themselves to the lingering death which must 

 inevitably attend their wintering in so wretched 

 a place.* They were accordingly taken home 



* Churchill's Collection, vol. iv. p. 748. 



m 2 



