170 . NORTH 
fliewed unto us, that that glorious light appeared to us 
againe.” Their joy, however, was fomewhat damped by 
-the death of their fick companion on the preceding day. 
True and perfect Dejcription of Three Voyages, fo Jlrange 
and wonder full that the like hath never been heard of before. 
Tranf. by William Phillip. London, 1609. 
The accuracy of the Dutch journalift, refpefting the 
re-appearance of the fun, has been called in queftion by 
moll philofophers and altronomers who have adverted to 
this account, but it has alfo had its defenders. It ispof- 
fble, and indeed not improbable, that after the freezing 
of the clock, and in the darknefs of a long night, they 
might have loft fome time, however muth they were in- 
terefted in marking even the hours as they palled away ; 
but fo very few obfervations have yet been made in high 
latitudes, on atmofpherical refraction, that a circumltance 
Hated with fo much honefty and fimplicity in a daily jour¬ 
nal, Ihould not, perhaps, be rejected as untrue, becaufe 
it is uncommon. Under ordinary circumftances of re- 
fraCtion, the appearance of the fun would feem to have 
been premature by feven or eight days. 
The bears did not fail to return with the light of the 
fun, and were now, if poffible, more than ever trouble- 
fome after their long deep ; the cold became more intenfe 
as the days lengthened, the froll more fevere and thefnow 
more frequent, fo that it was the month of June before 
they could fet about repairing their two boats and fitting 
them for a long voyage from their dreary place of reli- 
dence. To repair the fhip was out of the queftion, as 
ihe was completely bilged, and Hill fall in the ice. On 
the 13th of that month every thing was in readinefs for 
their departure ; previous to which a llatement was drawn 
up in writing by Barentz and left in the wooden houfe, 
containing their names, detailing their late misfortunes, 
and what had befallen them in that wretched abode ; 
after which, committing themfelves to the will and mercy 
of God, they left their Icy-haven in the two open boats, 
with a view to return the way they had come, along the 
weftern fhore of Nova Zembla. They had not pro¬ 
ceeded far, however, before a misfortune befell them 
which overwhelmed them all with grief and defpair. Poor 
Barentz, in whom all their confidence had relied, died on 
the 20th of June; being ill when they left their houfe, 
he, and another of the name of Claes Adrianfon, had 
been obliged to be taken to the boats on a fledge. On 
being told that Adrianfon was fo fick that he could not 
live, William Barentz fpake and faid, “ I thinke I lhal 
not live long after him.” He then faid to De Veer, 
“ Gerrit, give me fome drinke; and he had no fooner 
drunke but he was taken with fo fodain a qualme that he 
turned his eyes in his head and died.” The fame day 
Adrianfon died alfo. 
There are numerous inftances on record of extraordi¬ 
nary voyages being performed in rough and tempelluous 
leas in open boats, with the moll fcanty fupply of provi- 
lions and water; but there is probably not one inllance 
that can be compared to that in queftion, where fifteen 
perfons, in two open boats, had to pafs over a frozen 
ocean more than eleven hundred miles, “in the ice, over 
the ice, and through the fea,” expofed to all the dangers 
of being at one time overwhelmed by the waves, at ano¬ 
ther of beipg crulhed to atoms by the whirling of large 
mafles of ice, and to the conftant attack of ferocious 
bears, enduring for upwards of forty days fevere cold, 
fatigue, famine, and difeafe; and yet, excepting the two 
who died, and who entered the boats in a Hate of fick- 
nefs and debility, the reft arrived in good health and 
fpirits at Cola, where they had the fatisfaftion of meeting 
with their old friend and companion Jan Cornelis Ryp, 
who had deferted them to go to the northward the year 
before. They had learned, indeed, at Kilduyn, that 
three Dutch (hips were at Cola ; and a Laplander, whom 
they fent overland, returned with a letter from Cornelis 
Ryp; but they could fcarcely flatter themfelves that it 
was the fame who had failed with them from Holland. 
3 
POL E. 
He now took them on-board his (hip; and on the 29th of 
O6tober, 1597, they all arrived fafely in the Maes, to the 
great joy of their friends, who had given them up for loft. 
To what extent of northern latitude Cornelis Ryp 
had proceeded the preceding year, or what adventures he 
met with, ordilcoveries he made, is no-where Hated ; but, 
as he fet out with the intention of failing along the eaft- 
ern fide of the land they had before coafted to the 8o° 
of latitude, it is probable he circumnavigated Spitzber- 
gen, in which cafe he mull have reached the 81ft degree 
of northern latitude. 
Several years had palled away without any new attempt 
being made, on the part of the maritime nations of Eu¬ 
rope, to difcover a nearer palfage by the north to India and 
China. The Englilh, however, could not fee with indiffe¬ 
rence a lucrative commerce carried on with the eaftern 
world by the Spaniards and Portuguefe,without endeavour- 
ing to enjoy a participation thereof. The fuccefsful expedi¬ 
tions of fir Francis Drake in 1578, and of Candilh in 
1586, had fufliciently proved to the nation the great value 
of oriental commerce. The feveral attempts to eftablilh 
a (hare of that commerce by a Ihorter route than thofe of 
the Cape of Good Hope or Cape Horn having failed, the 
merchants of London determined to try their fortune by 
the former of thefe known pafl'ages ; not, however, fo 
much with the view of forming a legitimate trade 
with the natives of the Eaft, as of obtaining wealth by 
the more cheap and expeditious mode of plundering the 
Portuguefe. With this defign, Capt. George Raymond, 
having fitted out a fhip of his own called the Penelope, 
and accompanied by two others, the Merchant Royal and 
Edward Bonaventure, fet fail in 1591 for the Eaft Indies. 
The voyage, however, was mod difaftrous. The Royal 
Merchant returned from the Cape full of fick men. The 
Penelope had fcarcely doubled the Cape when Ihe was loft; 
and the Edward Bonaventure, commanded by Capt.James 
Lancafter, after an unfuccefsful voyage, was loll on her 
return, in the Weft Indies. But Lancafter fent home, or 
is fuppofed to have fent home, a piece of information, 
which gave a new ftimulus to northern difcovery. In a 
poftcript to one of his letters, he fays, “ The palfage to 
the Indies is in the north-weft of America, in 62. 30. 
north.” But this poftcript, then believed to be genuine, 
has fince been fuppofed to be an interpolation. (Burney’s 
Voyages and Difcoveries.) 
It ferved, however, to revive the hopes of the mer¬ 
cantile part of the nation; and, in 1602, the merchants 
of the Mulcovy and Turkey Companies fitted out, at 
their joint expenfe, an expedition intended folely for the 
difcovery of a north-weft palfage towards China. It con- 
filled of two fly-boats, the one of feventy tons, named 
the Difcovery ; the other of fixty tons, called the God- 
fpeed ; the two carrying five and thirty men and boys, 
and vi£lualted for eighteen months. The command of 
the expedition was entrufted to Capt. George Weymouth, 
who, for the better fuccefs of the voyage, as he tells us, 
was provided with “a great traveller and learned minifter, 
one mailer John Cartwright.” 
They departed from Radcliffe on the 2d of May, 1602. 
On the iSth of June, in lat. 59. 51. N. they fell in with 
the firlt ifland of ice, ftretching to the northward beyond 
the reach of light; and on the fame day law the louth 
part of Greenland. In Handing to the weftward, the fea 
was perfeiSlly fmooth ; but the water fo black, “and as 
thicke as puddle,” that they conceived it to be very (hal¬ 
low ; on heaving the lead, however, “ they could fetch 
no ground with one hundred and twenty fathoms.” On 
the 28th they faw land in lat. 62. 30. which they thought 
to be the land of America, but it was only Warwick’s 
Foreland on Refolution Illand. In proceeding to the weft- 
ward they palled feveral banks of ice, and again fell in 
with black water, occalioned probably by the foil which 
the ice-bergs frequently bring away in their difruption 
from the land.. Again they fuppofed that they difcovered 
America in lat. 63. 33. but they could not approach it on 
account 
