IN THE YEAR 1G13. 
11 
There happens to be, among the manuscripts in 
possession of the American Antiquarian Society, an 
original journal of that voyage to Spitzbergen in 1613, 
which immediately followed a grant to the Muscovy 
Company of additional powers from the crown. The 
attempt was made to assert a supremacy over the 
Northern seas by means of an armed fleet of merchant¬ 
men sent to enforce the submission of ships of other 
nations then beginning to frequent the coasts of Spitz¬ 
bergen. With this object was combined that of addi¬ 
tional discoveries ; which, with few exceptions, formed 
a part of the plan of every commercial expedition in 
that quarter. The crisis was one of some moment, 
and was productive of important results affecting the 
general interests of commerce. The whale-fishery, as 
a regular business, had recently commenced. This was 
the third venture of the company in that employment ; 
and the Spanish, French, and Dutch were eagerly 
following on their steps, and enticing away the English 
pilots and sailors to their own service. The Holland¬ 
ers had a claim of right, in virtue of the discovery of 
Spitzbergen by their countryman Barents in 1596. 
They were also fortified by the publication, the pre¬ 
ceding year, of the “ Mare Liberum ” of Grotius, written 
for their special benefit. Immediately following this 
voyage, there appeared from the press at Amsterdam an 
account of the discovery of the island, its situation and 
products, with a protest against the pretensions of the 
English, and their obstructions to the use of the fisheries 
with great labor by Mr. J. G. Kohl, under the encouragement of the Smithsonian 
Institution, should remain unpublished for want of the necessary funds. 
