240 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[chap. 
also landed on that Idol Cape which was visited during the 
voyage of the Vega. There were then from three to four 
hundred wooden idols, which, according to Linschoten’s descrip¬ 
tion, were very similar in appearance to those we saw. They 
were so ill made, says he, that one could scarcely guess that 
they were intended to represent men. The visage was very 
broad, the nose projecting, there were two holes in place of the 
eyes, and another hole represented the mouth. Five, six, or 
seven faces were often found carved on one and the same stock 
perhaps intended to represent a whole family.” Many Russian 
crosses were also erected there. Some days later they found on 
the south shore of the sound a small house filled with idols, 
much better made than the former, with eyes and paps 
of metal. While the Dutch were employed in examining this 
collection of idols, a reindeer sledge was driven forward in which 
sat a man armed with a bow. When he saw the foreigners, he 
called loudly, on which a number of sledges with about thirty 
men drove out of a valley and endeavoured to surround the 
Dutch. They now fled in haste to their boat, and when it had 
left the beach the Samoyeds shot at it with their arrows, but 
without hitting it. This bloodless conflict is, so far as we know, 
the only one that took place between the natives and the 
north-east voyagers. The latter are thus free from the great 
bloodguiltiness which attaches to most of those, who in the 
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries made voyages of discovery in 
southern regions. 
Some days later, on the the Dutch had a friendly 
meeting with the Samoyeds, who gave them very correct in¬ 
formation concerning the state of the land and the sea, telling 
them that '' after ten or twelve days they would meet with no 
more ice, and that summer would last six or seven weeks 
longer.” After the Dutch had learned all they could from these 
‘‘ barbarians, who had greater skill in managing their bow than 
a nautical gnomon, and could give better information regarding 
