/ 
in 
the English and the Dutch. The for¬ 
mer claim it from Sir Hugh Willough¬ 
by’s pretended view of it in 1553 : but 
the land seen by him being in latitude 
72°, could not be any part of Spitsbergen, 
which extends no farther south than 
76° 30'. Some writers have supposed, 
that if what Sir Hugh saw was not a fog 
hank, it must have been either the island 
of Jan Mayen, or some part of Green¬ 
land ; while others allege, that it was 
either Nova Zembla, or the island of 
Kolgow. The English historians have 
likewise honoured Stephen Burrows with 
the title of second discoverer of this 
country in 1556, though he nev^r ad¬ 
vanced farther in these seas than the la¬ 
titude of 70° 42'. The priority of this dis¬ 
covery indubitably belongs to the Dutch, 
who, tinder the pilotage of William Ba- 
rentz, in 1596, not only discovered, but 
landed on some of the northernmost 
islands (in lat. 80°) by them named Spits¬ 
bergen, or Sharp Mountains. 
