NORTH POLE. 
lie failed to the higheft point of northern latitude was 
very properly damped with his own name. On Lord 
Darcie's IJland they faw five deer, which took immediately 
to the fea on their landing; one of them is ftated to be 
“ as bigge as a good prety cow, and one very fat, their 
feet as bigge as oxe-feet.” From hence they fhaped their 
courfe for England, where they arrived on the 15th of 
September, 1587. 
Mr. Davis, on his arrival at Dartmouth, writes thus to 
Mr. Sanderfon : “ I have bene in lat. 73. N. finding the 
fee all open, and forty leagues betweene land and land. 
The pafiage is moft probable, the execution eafie, as at 
my coming you fhall fully knowe.” It would appear, 
however, that Davis was unable to prevail on the Mer¬ 
chant Adventurers to continue what might hitherto be 
named fruitlefs expeditions; but that his zeal for difco- 
very was unabated appears from a little treatife written 
and publilhed by him eight years after his return from 
his third voyage. In this work, addrefled to the “ lordes 
of her maiefties moft honorable privie confayle,” befides 
many ingenious arguments for the exiftence of a north- 
weft pnjfage, and the great advantages which England 
would derive from the difcovery thereof, there is a brief 
and comprehenfive narrative of his own three voyages, 
which is extracted by Mr. Barrow. The work is called 
“ The Wcrlde’s Hydrographicall Difcription; 1595.” 
Mr. B. calls it “a very rare and curious little book ; of 
which perhaps not three copies are in exiftence.” 
The difcoveriesmade by Davis in the arCtic feas, though 
they failed in attaining the main objeCt, were on the whole 
extremely important. Nothing more, however, was at¬ 
tempted in England for many years; but no fooner had 
the Low Countries been delivered from the yoke of Spain, 
chiefly by the exertions of England, than Dutch capital 
began to find its way into foreign channels, and a fpirit 
of enterprife to infufe itfelf into the commercial purfuits 
of this induftrious nation, which, in a very fliort fpace of 
time, raifed it to a degree of power and profperity un¬ 
equalled at any former period, and fcarcely furpafled by 
that of its deliverers. Defirous of participating with 
other maritime powers of Europe in the trade of the Eaft, 
it was obvious that a pafiage, which would lead by the 
north to India and China, would be to them, of all others, 
the moft advantageous. With a view to the difcovery of 
fucli a pafiage, the United Provinces fet forth, in the year 
j 594, an expedition, confifting of four fliips, whereof 
two were furniffied by the city of Amfterdam, one by 
Zealand, and one by Enkhuyfen ; the firft, called the 
Meflenger, was commanded by Barentz; the name of the 
Zealand fhip was the Swan, under the command of Cor- 
nelifon, who was alfo appointed admiral; and the laft was 
the Mercury, commanded by Ylbrants. The fliips from 
Zealand and Enkhuyfen failed together on the 5th of 
June, reached Kilduyn in Lapland on the 23d, left it on 
the 2d of July, pafled Kolgoy on the 3d, and foon after 
fell in with much ice and numerous feals. Proceeding 
to the eaftward, they found the weather, about the mid¬ 
dle of July, as warm as in Holland during the dog-days, 
and the mufquitoes were exceedingly troublefome. On 
approaching theifland and ftrait of Waygatz, or Waigatz, 
they met with great quantities of drift-wood, and on 
the fliores of the ifland whole piles of it, heaped up as if 
by art, fome of which were large trees that had been torn up 
by the roots. The face of the ifland is defcribed as being- 
covered with verdure, and embellifhed with a multitude 
of beautiful flowers. In parting round the fouth part of 
the ifland, they obferved from three to four hundred 
wooden idols, of men, women, and children, their faces 
generally turned towards the eaft. To this point the 
Dutch gave the name of Afgoden Hoelt, or Idol Point; 
but by the Ruffians it is called Waigati ISofs, or Cape of 
Carved Images ; and hence the name of Waigatz, which 
by many has been fuppofed, erroneoufly as it would feem, 
of Dutch origin, wai-gat fignifying in that language 
“ windy or ftormy ftrait or hole ;” but the former is un¬ 
1G7 
doubtedly the proper derivation, as the name was known 
to Steven Burough in 1565, long before any Dutchman 
had been fo far to the eaftward. 
On paffing the ftrait they continued their courfe to the 
eaftward, but met with confiderable interruption from ice, 
which, at one time, came floating in fuch quantities as 
to oblige them to return : but, on obferving it to feparate 
and difperfe by a change of wind and by the current, 
they again flood on to the eaftward until they came into 
a deep blue fea, nearly free from ice. At this time they 
were not more than forty leagues from Waigatz-ftrait; 
and the main-land to the fouthward of them was in fight, 
trending apparently to the fouth-eaft. Thefe circum- 
ftances gave them fuch confident hopes of an open pafiage 
to Cathaia, that, inftead of following up the aCtual difco¬ 
very of it, they agreed to turn back, in order to be the 
firft to convey the happy tidings to Holland. They ac¬ 
cordingly repafied the ftrait, gave names to fome iflands 
already named, called at Kilduyn, and from thence made 
the bell of their way home, which they reached on the 
26 th of September. This part of the voyage, containing 
the operations of the two fhips which failed together, is 
written by H. Van Linfchoten; that which follows by 
Gerrit de Veer. 
Barentz, in the Meflenger, after crofting the White 
Sea, flood to the north-eaftvvard ; and, having made the 
weft coaft of Nova Zembla on the 4th of July, proceeded 
along it to the northward, giving the names of Lanjeneh 
and Bapo to two headlands, and to a good bay, in which 
he anchored, that of Lomjbap, from a fpecies of penguin 
fo called by the Dutch, which was found here in vaft 
numbers; but Purchas, following the old tranflator 
Phillip, transforms thefe birds into “ a certayne kinde of 
beares;” vol. iii. p.474. The latitude of this bay was 
obferved to be 74. 45. He next pafled Admiral’s Ifland, 
Cape Negro, Black Point, Williams’s Ifland, which is in 
75. 55. and on the fliores of which was found much drift¬ 
wood, and a multitude of fea-horfes. 
From hence they llill proceeded northerly, paffing the 
Ifland of Crofies and Point Naflau, and came to an ex- 
tenfive field of ice, about the lat. 77. 25. of which they 
could fee no end from the top. Returning to the fouth¬ 
ward, they named the neared point of Nova Zembla 
in fight Ice Point, lying in lat. 77. and here they found 
fome ftones that gliftened like gold, which on thataccount 
they named gold-ftones. Farther fouth they gave the 
name of Orange to certain iflands, on the fliore of one of 
which they faw about two hundred fea-horfes balking in 
the fun, which they attacked with hatchets, cuttle-axes 
(cutlafles), and pikes, without being able to kill one of then?. 
The ice now came floating down in fuch quantities, 
and the weather was fo mifty, cold, and tempeftuous, that 
the crew firft began to murmur, and then refufed to pro¬ 
ceed any farther. Accordingly on the ill of Auguft, 
Barentz conl'ented to return to the fouthward, by the 
fame way they had advanced. In coafting along till they 
came into lat. 71. 33. a large inlet was difcovered which 
Barentz judged to be the place where Oliver Brunei had 
been before, called Cojtine Sarca ; i. e. Coafting Search ; 
or,as Forfterthinks, Conftant Search. They landed farther 
fouth on Sion’s Point, where they perceived fome Euro¬ 
peans mull have been ; for they there found fix facks of 
rye-meal, a crofs, a heap of ftones, and a large eannon- 
Ihot; alfo three houfes built of wood, near which flood 
five or fix coffins by graves with dead men’s bones, the 
coffins filled with ftones. They alfo difcovered the wreck 
of a Ruffian (hip with a keel forty feet long. To this 
“ faire haven” they gave the name of Meal-harbour, in 
gratitude for the relief it afforded them. On the 15th 
they arrived at the two iflands called Matfloe and Delgoy, 
where they met with the Zealand and Enkhuyfen fhips’ 
which had repafled Waigatz-ftrait, on their return, the 
fame day; and from whom they learned, that the latter 
had been as far to the eaftward, according to their con¬ 
jecture, as the river Obe; that they were not far from 
Cape 
