24 
A VOYAGE TO SPITZBERGEN 
“ sufficient captains and governors ” who offered their 
services, “■ by reason of his goodly personage, as also 
for his singular skill in the services of war.” Richard 
Chancelor, the second in command, was chosen “for 
many good points of wit in him; in whom alone great 
hope for the performance of this business rested.” 3 
They sailed May 10, 1553, courtiers and common 
people being assembled to witness their departure, amid 
the firing of cannon and the shouts of the multitude. 
“ The good King Edward only, by reason of his sick¬ 
ness, was absent from this shew.” 4 
It was the fate of Willoughby, with seventy men,— 
the crews of two of his vessels, — to be the proto¬ 
martyrs of arctic enterprise. They were found by some 
Russians, the spring following, frozen stark in their 
ships on the coast of Lapland. They had with them 
an imperfect journal of their voyage, which did not 
include an account of their final experiences or suf¬ 
ferings. 
“ Such was the Briton’s fate, 
As with Jirst prow (what have not Britons dared?) 
He for the passage sought, attempted since 
So much in vain.” —• Thomson. 
The lost men were in the “ Bona Esperanza ” and 
“ Bona Confidentia ; ” but Chancelor, in the “ Bon- 
adventure,” was more fortunate or more skilful. He 
landed near the present site of Archangel in Russia ; 
and, making good use of his “ wit,” was aided by the 
semi-barbarous natives in pushing his way to Moscow, 
where the emperor held his court. There he presented 
3 Clement Adams, in Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 271. 
4 Ibid. 
