168 NORTH 
Cape Tabin, which is the point of Tartary that reached 
towards the kingdom of Cathala; and that, (outh-eaft 
from Waigatz, they had difcovered a fmall ifland, to which 
they gave the name of Staaten IJland, and that “ there 
they found many ftones that were of chriftall mountayne, 
being a kind of diamond.” From hence the three (hips 
fet fail together, and arrived in theTexel, as before men¬ 
tioned, on the 16th of September, 1594. 
Prince Maurice and the ftates-general of the United 
Provinces entertained the mod fanguine hopes, from the 
report of Linfchoten in particular, of an eaftern paffage 
to China. They accordingly caufed a fleet of feven (hips 
to be fitted out for another expedition, fix of which were 
laden with divers kind of wares, merchandifes, and money, 
and fadtors appointed to difpofe cf the faid wares; of 
thefe Jacob Van Heemfkerke was the chief; and William 
Barentz was conflituted pilot-major. The feventh veffel 
was a fmall pinnace, w'hich, on reaching Cape Tabin, 
was to proceed to examine the remainder of the paffage, 
and bring back news thereof. Thefe immenfe prepara¬ 
tions were altogether rendered nugatory by the tardy 
movement of the machine. It was the 2d of July before 
the expedition left the Texel, and it did not reach the 
coaft of Nova Zembla before the 17th of Auguft, a pe¬ 
riod of the year at which it ought, if fuccefsful, to have 
been at lead the length of the Aleutian Iflands in the 
Pacific. They now found, as might have been anticipa¬ 
ted, the coaft of Nova Zembla unapproachable on ac¬ 
count of the ice. Turning therefore to the fouthward, 
they paffed Waigatz, and landed on the northern fhore, 
but could find neither men nor houfes ; but, on the 23d, 
they fell in with a Ruffian lodgis, or boat of Petchora, 
fewed together with ropes, in quell of fea-horfes’teeth, 
train-oil,,and geefe. Their fbips, they faid, to which 
their boat belonged, were to come out from the coaft of 
Ruffia to fetch them, then to fail, by the river Obe, to 
a place called Ugoleta in Tartary; that it would be nine 
or ten weeks before it began to freeze, but, when it once 
began, it would freeze fo hard, that men might pafs over 
the ice to Tartary. 
. On the fouth fide of Waigatz, they had fome inter- 
courfe with the Samoyeds, whofe appearance and man¬ 
ners are defcribed at confiderable length ; and from them 
they learned, that five days failing from thence to the 
north-eaft would bring them to a point of land, beyond 
which there was a great fea ftretching to the fouth-eaft. 
This was confidered as joyful information, as it fell in 
exadtly with their notions of the direction of the paffage 
to Cathaia. They parted with thefe people on friendly 
terms ; but, the Dutch having taken into their boat one 
of the carved images, a Samoyed came after them to fetch 
it, and found means of fignifying that they had not done 
well in carrying it off, on which it was returned, and the 
Samoyed carried it to a hill, and replaced it among feveral 
hundreds of the fame kind. 
Finding itimpoffible, on account of the great quantity 
of ice, to make any progrefs in the Tartarian fea, and 
‘‘the weather being miftie, melancholy, and fnowie,” 
they drove with the current back again through the (trait, 
and on the 15th of September the whole fleet took their 
departure from Waigatz'; on the 29th they entered Ward- 
huys, from whence they failed again on the 10th of Octo¬ 
ber, and on the 18th of November arrived in the Maes. 
After this lucklefs voyage, for which fucli great and 
unneceffary expenfe and preparations had been made, the 
Dutch ftates feemed to have felt no inclination to renew 
the attempt for the difco.very of a north-eaft paffage ; but 
they neverthelefs iflued a proclamation, holding forth a 
certain reward to fucli perfon or perfons asfhould accom- 
plifh a voyage to China by this route. Upon the ftrength 
of this encouragement, the merchants of Amfterdam 
fitted out two fliips ; one of which was commanded by 
Jacob Van Heemfkerke, and Wiiliarp Barentz appointed 
chief pilot; and the mafter of the other was Cornelis 
jtyp. They failed from Amfterdaqi on the 10th of May, 
POLE. 
1596. On the iff of June they had no night, and on the 
4th, in lat. 71. a ftrange fight appeared in the heavens. It 
was two paraheliaor mock funs, which are thus defcribed ; 
“On each fide of the funne there was another funneand 
two raine-bowes, that paft cleane thorow the three funnes, 
and then two raine-bowes more, the one compaffing 
round about the funnes, and the other croffe thorow the 
great rundle; the great rundle Handing with the utter- 
inoft point elevated above the horizon 28 0 .” In the 
original Dutch voyage, by De Veer, a figure is given of 
the three funs and the rain-bows. Waerachtiglie Befchriv. 
van de drie Seylagien, fyc. 
On the 5th they fell in with the firft ice, which, being 
in fleecy detached pieces, fome of the crew miftook for 
white lwans. On the 7th they were in lat. 74. failing 
through the ice “ as if betweenetwo lands.” On the 9th 
they came to Bear (afterwards Cherry ) ifland ; and here 
they killed a bear, whofe (kin meafured twelve feet in 
length. On the 19th they found, by obfervation, that 
.they had reached the lat. 80.11. at which time they 
had much land to the eaftvvard. On this coaft, after a 
hard fight, they killed another bear, whofe (kin was thir¬ 
teen feet long. On a fmall ifland they found multitudes 
of eggs of certain red geefe; the birds, when driven away, 
cried rot , rot, rot, i. e. red, red, red. “Thofe geefe were 
of a perfit red colour, fucli as come into Holland about 
Weiringen, and everie yeereare there taken in abundance, 
but till this time it was never knovvne where they hatcht 
their egges ; fo that fome men have taken upon them to 
write that they fit upon trees in Scotland, that hang over 
the water, and fucli egges as fall.from them downe into 
the water become young geefe, and fwini there out of 
the water ; but thofe that fall upon the land burll in fun¬ 
der, and are loft.” This fable of the barnacles is thus, in 
the opinion of De, Veer, for the firft time refuted ; and, 
he continues, “ it is not to be wondered at that 110 man 
could tell where they breed their egges, for that no man 
that ever wee knew had ever been under 8o°: nor that 
land under 8o° was never fet down in any card, much 
lefle the red geele that breed therein.” See the article 
Anas, vol. i. p. 519, and Lepas, vol. xii. p. 503. This 
is, unqueitionably, the firft difeovery of Spitzbergen ; and 
it is further obferved, and very truly, that “ there grow- 
eth here leaves and grafle ; yet in Nova Zembla,. under 
76°, there groweth neither leaves nor grafle ;” and fucli 
is the providence of nature in the appropriation of the 
animal to the vegetable kingdom, that, while the more 
fouthern climate of Nova Zembla produces only carnivo¬ 
rous animals, the northernmoft part of Spitzbergen is 
fupplied with herbivorous deer. 
He does not exadtly Hate that they were unable to pro¬ 
ceed higher to the northward, though a good deal of ice 
appeared around them. By their latitude it would feem 
they were oft" Amfterdam Ifland, on which is that famous 
foreland, fince fo well known to whalers under the name 
of Hakluyt's Headland. The variation of the compafs 
was found to be 16 0 W. From hence they (leered iouth- 
welt to avoid the ice, and on the ill of July were again 
oppofite to Bear-Kland. Here the (hips mutually agreed 
to part company ; Jan Cornelis being of opinion that fie 
(hould find a paffage to the ealtward of that land, which 
lay under 8o°, and accordingly returned to the northward ; 
while Jacob Van Heemfkerke, or rather his pilot Barentz, 
deeming it more likely to find the paffage to the eajlward , 
in a lower parallel, fteered for Waigatz Strait. 
The latter veffel, after a long paffage, occafioned by 
bad weather, contrary winds, and much floating ice, 
reached the coaft of Nova Zembla, on the 17th of July, 
about Lomlbay. She then flood to the northward as near 
to the land as the ice w'ould permit; and on the 20th 
Barentz found, by obfervation, that they had reached 
the lat. 76. 15. It was not before the 6th of Auguft that 
they fucceeded in doubling Point Naffau ; and, the wind 
being from the eaft, they were glad to make fall the (hip 
to a mafs of ice thirty-fix fathom under water, and fix- 
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