134 THE SEA. 



the ice masses commenced driving and grinding together with greater force than before ; 

 the ship was lifted up bodily, almost upright, and then dashed into the water again. We 

 cannot wonder to learn that the hairs of their heads also stood " vpright with f eare " 

 amid such scenes. 



And so it went on from day to day, the vessel being strained and cracked in many 

 places, and leaking badly. On September 5th they held a council, and determined to 

 commence the work of removing the stores ashore. They carried off their old foresail, 

 and " other furniture " on land to make a tent ; powder, lead, muskets, with bread and 

 wine, and some tools to mend their boat. " The 1 1 of September," says the narrative, 

 "it was calme wether, and 8 of vs went on land, euery man armed, to see if that were 

 true, as our other three companions had said that there lay wood about the riuer ; for that 

 seeing we had so long wound and turned about, sometime in the ice, and then againe 

 got out, and thereby were compelled to alter our course, and at last saw that we could not 

 get out of the ice, but rather became faster, and could not loose our ship, as at other 

 times we had done, as also that it began to be winter, we took counsell together what 

 we were best to doe according to the time that we might winter there, and attend such 

 aduenture as God would send vs ; and after we had debated vpon the matter, to keepe 

 and defend our selues both from the cold and the wild beasts, we determined to build a 

 house vpon the land to keep vs therein as well as we could, and so to commit ourselues 

 vnto the tuition of God." As they had little wood on board, and there were no trees 

 on land, they were most rejoiced when they found <c certaine trees, roots and all," which 

 had been driven upon the shore (drift-wood, probably, brought down by one of the great 

 rivers of Asiatic Siberia, floated out to sea, and deposited on the shores of Nova Zembla). 

 " We were much comforted," says the narrator, " being in good hope that God would 

 show vs some further fauour ; for that wood serued vs not onely to build our house, but 

 also to burne and serue vs all the winter long ; otherwise, without all doubt, we had died 

 there miserably with extreame cold." 



The party as it now stood consisted of seventeen persons, of whom one, the carpenter, 

 who of all could least be spared at this juncture, died towards the end of September, 

 and another was prostrated with sickness. They had to haul the wood in sledges for a 

 considerable distance over ice and snow, and it was so intensely cold that the skin was 

 often taken off their hands and faces. " As wee put a naile into our mouthes," says 

 De Vere " (as carpenters use to do) there would ice hang thereon when wee took it out 

 againe, and make the bloud follow." The present writer saw precisely the same thing 

 happen more than once at a Russian trading post in Alaska some years ago, and knows well 

 what it is to have his own mouth and nostrils nearly frozen up by the breath congealing 

 about the moustache, lips, &c., more especially when camped in the " open " at night. 

 These good Dutchmen seem to have been most resigned and philosophical during " their 

 cold, comfortlesse, darke, and dreadful winter," determining to make the best of their 

 hard lot. The narrative of De Veer is told in a plain, unvarnished, and manly style, and, 

 as Dr. Beke* has well remarked, "we may perceive that the reliance of himself and his 



* Introduction to the Hakluyt Society's edition of these voyages. 



