CAPTAIN WOOD. 295 



on the 8th July, she made her appearance, and, a.d. 

 to the great joy of Captain Wood and all his crew, 

 she took them on board, and conveyed them 

 safely to England, with the exception of two 

 seamen, who were drowned in landing upon Nova 

 Zembla when the ship went to pieces. The 

 failure of this expedition is attributed by Wood 

 to the error in which he was led by following 

 the opinion of poor Barentz, but in what way 

 we are not told, nor can we easily imagine ; for, 

 if that worthy navigator gave any opinion, it 

 would certainly be against the probability of a 

 passage by the route pursued by Wood. Indeed 

 Wood seems to have been greatly at a loss for 

 an excuse for his failure, as we find him ac- 

 cusing all the statements of both Dutch and 

 English as false, and asserting, in the most un- 

 accountable manner, that Nova Zembla was 

 connected with Spitzbergen on the north, and 

 with the coast of Tartary on the south, notwith- 

 standing it was well known that both its extremi- 

 ties had been rounded on several occasions. In 

 short, he seems to have been determined that, 

 as he could not effect the passage himself, he 

 would create an imaginary barrier which should 

 deter any other person from renewing the 

 attempt. 



We cannot suppose that these unfounded 

 assertions had much weight in the minds of 



