DEATH OF BARENTSZ. 
297 
men, Nicolas Andrisz, was likewise ill. That they 
might be the more commocliously attended, they were 
embarked one in each boat; but all the care and 
nursing that could be bestowed on them, exposed to 
the open air in a small boat, was not capable of saving 
them from falling victims to the severity of the 
weather. On the 16th, the boats were at the Isle Van 
Orange, which lies near the northern extremity of 
Nova Zembla. The next day they were beset by ice, 
and remained the three following days without being 
able to proceed. On the forenoon of the 20th, word 
was brought to Barentsz that Andrisz appeared to be 
drawing to his end. Barentsz said, in reply, that he 
believed his own was not far distant. The people in 
the boat with him, seeing that he was at this very 
time inspecting and considering a chart which Girard 
le Ver had made of the places they had seen in the 
voyage, did not apprehend immediate danger, but con¬ 
tinued sitting and conversing, till Barentsz put down 
the chart and asked for some drink, to which he was 
helped, and immediately after expired, to the great 
affliction of his remaining companions, he being 
esteemed one of the most capable seamen of his 
time. 
They proceeded westward and southward along the' 
western coast of Nova Zembla, as well as the ice and 
