KOLGUEV AND THE NAVIGATORS 



With us the name of Kolguev had hitherto been familiar only to 

 students of old Arctic literature, where indeed it fills a very small place. 

 Nor is this strange. A harbourless island with a dangerous coast, it 

 was wisely avoided by any who had a more distant mission on those 

 seas. 



1553. Willoughby s Land(?) — Sir Hugh Willoughby this year sailed 

 from the Thames to try and find a passage by the North to the treasures 

 of the East (though afterwards he died on the Murman Coast) with 

 three ships, Bona Esperanza, Edward Bonaventure, and Botia Confi- 

 dentia. The Edward Bonaventure was commanded by Chancelor, and 

 Stephen Burrough was among the crew. This ship became separated 

 from her consorts, the other two, after being compelled to return west- 

 ward, sailing about and trying to make Vardohuus. And then we read, 

 on August 14th, ' Early in the morning descried land, which land we bare 

 with all, hoising out our boat to discover what land it might be, but 

 the boat could not come to land, the water was so shoale, where was 

 very much ice also, but there was no similitude of habitation, and the 

 land lyeth from Seynam East and by North 160 leagues, being in latitude 

 72 degrees.' 1 



Where was this ' Willoughby's Land ' ? Later writers have thought it 

 was Novaya Zemblya, and geographers have put it there. Nordenskidld 

 believed it to be Kolguev, and this better agrees with the data given, 

 in spite of the difference of 2°. 



1556.— And in this year Stephen Burrough, the future chief pilot of 

 England, sighted Kolguev as he went eastward on that eventful voyage 

 during which he discovered and passed the Kara gates. 



The account is entitled, ' The navigation and discoverie toward the 



1 Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 236. 



