ITS PROPERTIES AND DIVISIONS. 



bpen into the Tartarian Sea : and they had some hints from the 

 people of Japan and the .Portuguese, about the country of Jezzo, 

 which lay above Japan. But not resting satisfied with the bare 

 relation, in the years 1652 and 1653, they sent out some skilful 

 persons to discover those coasts ; who passing beyond Japan, the 

 50th degree of N. latitude, arrived on the coast of Jezzo, where 

 they fell into a narrow sea, yet broad and convenient enough to 

 lead into the Northern Oce;m. The opposite shores they called 

 het Compagnie land, and an island seated in the middle of the 

 gulf they called het Staten Eyland. Whether this land of Jezzo 

 be annexed to Japan or not, the inhabitants of both countries 

 doubt ; because vast and inaccessible mountains interpose, which 

 hinder the communication. Neither does it as yet clearly ap- 

 pear, whether this land of Jezzo be a part of Tartary, or whe- 

 ther by an arm of the sea divided from it. The Chinese affirm, 

 that Tartary runs 300 China leagues eastward beyond their fa- 

 mous wall: so that if we follow these, the country of Jezzo and 

 Japan may seem to be annexed to Tartary ; but those of Jezzo say, 

 that there runs an arm of the sea between them and Tartary: which 

 opinion may seem to receive some confirmation from what those 

 Hollanders affirm, who were shipwrecked some years since on 

 Corea, a peninsula of China, where they saw a whale, upon whose 

 back stuck a harping. iron of Gascony. It is therefore most pro- 

 bable, that this whale passed from Spitzbergen through the nearest 

 aim of the sea, rather than through the more remote. After the 

 experiments made by the governors of the East India Company, in 

 the year ]6o2 and \653, they resolved to proceed no further on 

 the discovery ; as well because the Emperor of Japan interdicted, 

 the navigation of foreigners into Jezzo, in regard, as they -say, of 

 the vast tribute which he annually raises from the silver mines 

 there ; as because they thought it may little conduce to their ad- 

 vantage, to have this compendious way o navigation discovered* 

 And therefore they have thought fit to prohibit all further search 

 into the navigation to Jezzo, and the adjacent countries ; for which 

 very reason they have also endeavoured to conceal their Austral 

 plantations. 



Now concerning that tract or space which lies between Spitz* 

 bergen, Nova-zembla, and the Straits of Jezzo, we have no reason 

 to entertain any doubt ; especially as many of the Muscovite 



VOL, ill. x 



