BARENTZ’S EXPEDITION. 
39 
should succeed in discovering a route to China, by a northern 
passage. This was a bait too tempting for the Amsterdam mer¬ 
chants to withstand, and accordingly they fitted out two ships, 
the command of which was given to Barentz. He sailed with 
the fullest confidence of success, and in the early part of June, 
he had reached so high a latitude, that he had constant daylight; 
a few days afterwards, he discovered land to the eastward, which 
by observation was found to be in latitude 80° 11/. It is from this 
voyage that the Dutch claim the honor of being the discoverers 
of Spitzbergen; although it is on record that it was discovered 
by Sir Hugh Willoughby in 1553, he having seen land in latitude 
80°, which may be considered as the northernmost point of 
Spitzbergen. The name of Spitzbergen, or sharp mountains, 
was given to it by Barentz, on account of the many peaked 
and snowy mountains, with which that inhospitable region 
abounds. 
The subsequent proceedings of this expedition, form one of 
the most interesting narratives of perilous undertakings, of hair 
breadth escapes, and of an accumulation of human suffering, 
which is to be found on record of any of the voyages, which had 
been then undertaken for the purpose of discovery in the northern 
latitudes. Human credulity is often put to the stretch, to attach 
any verity to the relation, not only of the extent of suffering 
which the frame of man can endure, before life is drawn from its 
last hold, but also of the wonderful energy and fortitude, which 
the human character can display amidst accidents, where death 
presents itself under the most horrid visitations, with scarcely a 
single ray of hope to enliven the prospect. 
Barentz was a man of undoubted courage and enterprise, but 
his constitution was not of that iron make, so as to enable him 
to bear up against those perpetual hardships and privations, 
which he was certain to undergo in the perilous undertaking in 
which he had engaged. From Spitzbergen he shaped his course 
for Nova Zembla, hoping to find a passage to the eastward in a 
lower parallel than 80°, and early in the month of August he 
found himself in the latitude of 77°. Strong winds from the 
eastward here impeded his further progress, and in order to save 
