78 A HISTORY OF THE WHALE FISHERIES 



seek a passage to China by the north-east route. 

 These expeditions failing in their main object, the 

 Government declined to assist the expedition of 1596, 

 which was therefore financed by private enterprise. 

 Barents sailed from Vlieland on the i8th May, 

 1596, and after touching at Bear Island on the 

 9th June, they thought they saw land on the I4th 

 but were not certain till the I7th, when they 

 undoubtedly discovered Spitsbergen. Probably the 

 ships (there were two of them) were not fitted out 

 for whaling, and the solitary reference to whales by 

 Barents is on the I5th June, when he records 

 " Passions une grande Balalne morte, sur lequel y 

 avoit plusiers meauves" Herman records a land- 

 ing when they found among other things " des dens 

 de Baleines" 



The first mention of train oil in the accounts of 

 the Muscovy Company is in the years 1604-6. 

 This was obtained from Cherie Island (Bear Island) 

 from " Sea-Morses " (Walrus). In 1604 the good 

 ship God Speed of sixty tons set sail from 

 London with Thomas Welden as master; who also 

 went in 1605 and 1606. 



In 1609 Jonas Poole in the Lioness e sailed from 

 Cherie Island, where he " set up a pike, with a white 

 cloth upon it, and a letter signifying our possession 

 for the right worshipfull Company trading to 

 Moscovie." By this time sea-horses were becoming 

 scarce, though Poole observed " the multitude of 

 whales, that shewed themselves on the coast of 

 Greenland." In 1609 the gain was thirty per cent, 



