SIR HUGH WILLOUGHBY. 227 



a port in which, in case of separation, the fleet a.d. 



1553. 



were appointed to rendezvous, and on the 14th 

 August, early in the morning, discovered land in 

 lat. 72° N., bearing E. by N. 160 leagues from 

 Seynam. This land has been affirmed by Pur- 

 chas to be Spitzbergen, but there is nothing in 

 Sir Hugh Willoughby's journal to authorize such 

 a presumption ; on the contrary, his courses and 

 distances clearly prove that it could not be part 

 of that island.* 



* This land could not be Spitzbergen, for that island, from 

 Seynam bears to the west of north, whereas Sir Hugh's 

 courses are all N. E., and S. E. And further, from this 

 newly-discovered land he stood three days to the northward, 

 and then steered S. S. E. Thence he sailed many leagues to 

 the westward, before he came to Arzina. Whereas, S. S. E. 

 alone from Spitzbergen would hardly fetch the North Cape. 

 One of two conclusions, therefore, is evident, that, if this 

 latitude be correct, the discovery in question was Nova Zem- 

 bla, and if the distance from Seynam, it was the coast of Lap- 

 land, about Suetoi Noss, at the mouth of the White Sea. But 

 if we adopt the last-mentioned case, the latitude would be 69° 

 instead of 72°, an error of too great a magnitude even in those 

 days, to have been made, and less probable, in this instance, 

 as we find Sir Hugh's latitudes of Rost and Seynam Islands 

 nearly correct. It seems more probable, then, that the dis- 

 tance was in error, and that the land was part of Nova Zembla, 

 which supposition is strengthened by instructions given to Pet 

 and Jackman, only twenty-seven years after, in which they 

 are directed to stretch over from Wardhuys, to Willoughby's 

 land.t If it were Nova Zembla, the latitude and bearing from 



\ See Hakluyt's Voyages, vol. i. p. 488. 



q 2 



