V ] THE MUSCOVY COMPANY. 165 



land, but also to various Beorma or Finnish tribes. Probably 

 the Samoyeds then, as now, drove their reindeer herds up 

 thither to pasture on the grassy jslains along the coast of the 

 Polar Sea, where they were less troubled by the mosquito and 

 the reindeer fly than further to the south, and probably the wild 

 nomads were accompanied then, as now, by merchants from the 

 more civilised races settled in Northern Russia. The name 

 Novaya Zemlya (New Land), indicates that it was discovered 

 at a later period, probably by Russians, but we know neither 

 when nor how.' The narrative of Stephen Burrough's voyage, 

 which, like so many others, has been preserved from oblivion 

 by Hakluyt's famous collection, thus not only forms a sketch 

 of the first expedition of West-Europeans to Novaya Zemlya, 

 but is also the princij^al source of our knowledge of the earliest 

 Russian voyages to these regions. I shall on this account go 

 into greater detail in the case of this voyage than in those of 

 the other voyages that will be referred to here. 



It is self-evident that the new important commercial treaties, 

 to which (Jhancelor's discovery of the route from England to 

 the White Sea led, would be hailed with great delight both 

 in Eno'land and in Russia, and would give occasion to a number 

 of new undertakings. At first, as early as 1555, there was 

 formed in England a company of " merchant adventurers of 

 England for the discoverie of landes, territories, isles, dominions, 

 and seigniories unknowen," commonly called " the Muscovy 

 Company." Sebastian Cabot, then almost an octogenarian, was 

 appointed governor for the term of his natural life, and a 

 number (»f privileges were conferred upon it by the rulers 

 both of England and Russia. At the same time negotiators, 

 merchants, and inquirers were sent by different ways from 

 England to Russia in order to confirm the amity with that 

 country, and more thoroughly examine the, at least to England, 

 new world, which had now been discovered in the East. But a 

 detailed account of these journeys does not enter into the plan 

 of this work. 



With this, however, men were not content. They considered 

 Chancelor's voyage as but the first step to something far more 

 important, namely, the opening of the North-East Passage to 

 China and India. While Chancelor himself the year after his 

 return was sent along with several merchants to the White 



1 The Eussian chronicles state that the land between the Dwina and the 

 Petchora (Savolotskaja Tchad) was made tributary under the Slavs in 

 Novgorod during the first half of the ninth century. A monastery is 

 spoken of in the beginning of the twelfth century at the mouth of the 

 Dwina, whence we may conclude that the land was even then partly 

 peopled by Russians, but we want trustworthy information as to the time 

 when the Russian-Finnish Arctic voyages liegan (compare F. Litke, Vier- 

 vialige lieise (lurch das n'urdliche Eiamcer. Berlin, 1835, p. 3), 



