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ARCTIC EXPLORATION
[Illustration: SAILING THE ARCTIC SEAS]
ARCTIC
EXPLORATION
BY
J. DOUGLAS HOARE
WITH EIGHTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS AND FOUR MAPS
NEW YORK
E. P. DUTTON & CO.
1906
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
I. EARLY VOYAGES 1
II. FROM HUDSON TO PHIPPS AND NELSON 17
III. THE VOYAGE OF BUCHAN AND FRANKLIN 30
IV. ROSS’S FAILURES AND PARRY’S SUCCESSES 35
V. FRANKLIN’S FIRST OVERLAND JOURNEY 45
VI. PARRY’S LAST NORTH-WEST VOYAGES 64
VII. FRANKLIN’S SECOND LAND JOURNEY 70
VIII. PARRY’S NORTH-POLAR VOYAGE 79
IX. ROSS’S ADVENTURES IN THE “VICTORY” 86
X. BACK’S TWO JOURNEYS 95
XI. THE DISCOVERIES OF DEASE AND SIMPSON 102
XII. FRANKLIN’S LAST VOYAGE 116
XIII. RAE AND THE BOOTHIA PENINSULA 122
XIV. THE FRANKLIN SEARCH BEGUN 129
XV. THE VOYAGES OF COLLINSON AND M’CLURE 137
XVI. BELCHER AND THE FRANKLIN SEARCH 150
XVII. RAE’S JOURNEYS OF 1851-53 159
XVIII. M’CLINTOCK AND THE “FOX” 168
XIX. THE VOYAGES OF KANE AND HAYES 182
XX. HALL AND THE “POLARIS” 192
XXI. THE “GERMANIA” AND THE “HANSA” 200
XXII. THE VOYAGE OF THE “TEGETTHOFF” 207
XXIII. NARES AND SMITH SOUND 215
XXIV. THE GREELY TRAGEDY 223
XXV. NORDENSKIÖLD AND HIS WORK 235
XXVI. THE STORY OF THE “JEANNETTE” 244
XXVII. LEIGH SMITH AND THE “EIRA” 252
XXVIII. GREENLAND AND THE EARLIER JOURNEYS OF NANSEN AND PEARY 257
XXIX. THE JACKSON-HARMSWORTH EXPEDITION 270
XXX. NANSEN AND THE “FRAM” 278
XXXI. CONWAY AND ANDRÉE 287
XXXII. THE LATER VOYAGES OF SVERDRUP AND PEARY 293
XXXIII. OTHER RECENT EXPEDITIONS—ABRUZZI, WELLMANN, AND TOLL 301
INDEX 309
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
SAILING THE ARCTIC SEAS _Frontispiece_
From an old print
AN OLD MAP OF THE POLAR REGIONS 1
From “Narborough’s Voyages,” 1694
STRANDED ON NOVA ZEMBLA 13
From an old print
THE “RACEHORSE” AND THE “CARCASE” IN THE ICE 28
From a picture by J. Clively
CUTTING A PASSAGE INTO WINTER HARBOUR 42
From a sketch by Lieut. Beechey
CROSSING THE BARREN GROUNDS 56
From a drawing by Capt. Back
THE WALRUS AS SEEN BY OLAUS MAGNUS 68
THE DISRUPTION OF THE ICE ROUND THE “TERROR” 100
From a drawing by Capt. Smyth
BOATS AMONG THE ICE 134
From a drawing by Capt. Back
FAST IN THE ICE 154
From a sketch by Lieut. Beechey
THE FRANKLIN RECORD 174
ESKIMO ARCHITECTS 192
From a drawing by Capt. Lyon
A BEAR HUNT 212
From an old print
ESKIMOS SLEDGING 248
From a drawing by Capt. Lyon
PEARY’S TRAVELLING EQUIPMENT 266
By kind permission of Messrs F. A. Stokes Co.
THE MEETING BETWEEN JACKSON AND NANSEN 274
By kind permission of Capt. Jackson and Messrs
Harper Bros.
MAP OF FRANZ JOSEF LAND 277
MAP OF SPITZBERGEN 286
IN THE SLUSH 288
By kind permission of Sir Martin Conway and Messrs
J. M. Dent & Co.
ANDRÉE’S BALLOON IN ITS SHED 292
From a photograph
THE “POLAR STAR” UNDER ICE PRESSURE 304
By kind permission of Messrs Hutchinson & Co.
CHART OF THE NORTH POLAR REGIONS _Attend_
ARCTIC EXPLORATION
CHAPTER I
EARLY VOYAGES
The story of the first few centuries of Arctic exploration can, of
course, never be written. The early Norsemen, to whom must go the
credit for most of the first discoveries, were a piratical race, and
their many voyages were conducted, for the most part, in a strictly
business-like spirit. Occasionally one of them would happen on a new
country by accident, just as Naddod the Viking happened upon Iceland
in 861 by being driven there by a gale while on his way to the Faroe
Islands. Occasionally a curious adventurer would follow in the
footsteps of one of these early discoverers, but no serious attempt
was made to widen the field of knowledge thus opened up, unless the
Norsemen saw their way to entering upon commercial relations with the
natives, to the great disadvantage of the latter.
[Illustration: AN OLD MAP OF THE POLAR REGIONS
FROM NARBOROUGH’S “VOYAGES” (1694)
_The erroneous intersection of Greenland by Frobisher’s Strait should
be especially noted_]
Rumours of the existence of Iceland, or Thule as it was then called,
were first brought home by Pytheas, while Irish monks are known to
have stayed there early in the ninth century, but probably the first
attempt to colonise it was made by Thorold about a hundred years
after Naddod’s visit. This worthy Viking, feeling it advisable to
leave his native land after a quarrel with a relative, during
the course of which the latter had been killed, set his course for
Iceland, and made himself a new home there. Shortly afterwards his
son Erik, who seems to have inherited his father’s taste for murder,
followed him to his new abode, and later on, when on a voyage of
adventure, set foot upon Greenland. Erik’s son, Leif, who was also
of a roving disposition, sailed far westward in 100 A.D., and landed
either on Newfoundland or at the mouth of the St Lawrence, thus
anticipating the discovery of America by Columbus by nearly five
hundred years.
It was not until the end of the fifteenth century that the first
serious attempts at Arctic exploration were made by John Cabot and
his son Sebastian. John Cabot was a Venetian, who settled at Bristol
probably about the year 1474, and to him belongs the honour of being
the first to suggest the possibility of finding a north-west passage
to India. In 1496 he received a commission from Henry VII. to sail
out for the discovery of countries and islands unknown to Christian
peoples, and though the real object of his voyage, discreetly
veiled beneath these purposely vague terms, was not attained, he
immortalised his name by the discovery of Nova Scotia and Cape Breton
Island. The history of the earlier Cabot voyages is sadly obscure,
and was rendered more so by Sebastian himself, who in his later years
seems to have claimed discoveries which properly belonged to his
father. Sebastian is unquestionably the hero of his own account of
the expedition of 1496, which is given by Hakluyt:—
“When news were brought that Don Christoval Colon (i.e. Christopher
Columbus), the Genoese, had discovered the coasts of India, whereof
was great talke in all the court of King Henry VII., who then
reigned, insomuch that all men with great admiration affirmed it to
be a thing more divine than humane to saile by the West into the East
where spices growe, by a way that was never knowen before, by this
fame and report there increased in my heart a great flame of desire
to attempt some notable thing. And understanding by reason of the
Sphere (i.e. globe) that if I should saile by way of the North-west
I should by a shorter tract come into India, I thereupon caused the
king to be advertised of my devise, who immediately commanded two
Carvels to be furnished with all things appertayning to the voyage,
which was as farre as I remember in the year 1496, in the beginning
of Sommer. I began therefore to sail toward the North-west, not
thinking to find any other land than that of Cathay and from thence
to turn toward India; but after certaine days, I found that the
land ranne towards the North, which was to me a great displeasure.
Nevertheless, sayling along by the coast to see if I could finde
any gulfe that turned, I found the lande still continent to the
58th degree under our Pole. And seeing that the coast turned toward
the East, despairing to finde the passage, I turned backe againe,
and sailed downe by the coast of that land toward the Equinoctiall
(ever with intent to finde the saide passage to India) and came to
that part of this firme lande which is nowe called Florida, where my
victuals failing, I departed from thence and returned into England,
where I found great tumults among the people, and preparation
for warres in Scotland, by reason whereof there was no more
consideration had to this voyage.”
John Cabot made a second expedition in 1498, and probably died soon
after. Sebastian, who had accompanied his father on both his American
voyages, finding the English Government little inclined to spend
money on further exploration, transferred his services to the King
of Spain, for whom he did excellent work by examining the coast of
South America. In 1548, however, he returned to England, and Edward
VI. did him the honour that was his just due, by settling on him the
sum of 500 marks (£166, 13s. 4d.) a year for life, and, according
to Hakluyt, creating him Grand Pilot. Never did a man deserve his
honours more, for, by founding the company of Merchant Adventurers,
of which he was the first governor, he did much to extend the foreign
commerce of the nation, and, by fostering a spirit of enterprise,
he paved the way for that immense success won by our sailors and
merchants during the next century.
The first purely British expedition was that of Robert Thorne, of
Bristol, at whose instigation, say Hall and Grafton, “King Henry
VIII. sent out two fair ships, well manned and victualled, having
in them divers cunning men to seek strange regions, and so they set
forth out of the Thames, on the 20th day of May, in the nineteenth
yere of his raigne, which was the yere of our Lord 1527.” The “fair
ships” had as their objective no less a place than the North Pole,
but the men do not seem to have been sufficiently “cunning” to make
much headway against the difficulties that beset their path, and the
chronicles of the time are singularly reticent concerning their
doings.
The voyage of the _Trinitie_ and _Minion_, which sailed in 1536,
is one of the most disastrous on record. The expedition was sent
out with a view to exploring North-West America, and it reached the
coast of Newfoundland in safety. It seems, however, to have been
hopelessly under-provisioned, and the men, having little to eat on
board and finding themselves unable to supplement their scanty store
on land, took to cannibalism, and would all have perished but for the
timely arrival of a French ship, which they promptly set upon and
misappropriated. We are not told what happened to the unfortunate
Frenchmen, but Henry VIII. is reported to have compensated such as
survived.
Hitherto the energies of our sailors had been principally devoted to
discovering a north-west passage to India, Cathay, and the Indies.
When, however, Cabot returned from Spain and was made “Governour
of the mysterie and companie of the marchants adventurers for the
discovery of regions, dominions, islands and places unknown,” he
promptly showed how well fitted he was for that honourable post by
suggesting that, as the voyages towards the north-west had not been
attended by much success, it would not be amiss to try a change of
tactics and to attempt to find a way to Cathay by the north-east.
The idea was taken up enthusiastically, and, as this was the first
extended maritime venture made by us in distant seas, the utmost care
was exercised over the preparations. Three ships were specially built
for the enterprise, and were fitted out in the most substantial
manner possible. The admiral of the fleet, the _Bona Esperanza_,
120 tons, was placed under the command of Sir Hugh Willoughby, and
carried thirty-five persons, who included six merchants. The _Edward
Bonaventure_, 160 tons, was commanded by Captain Richard Chancellor,
her company consisting of fifty, including two merchants; and the
_Bona Confidentia_, 90 tons, was commanded by Cornelius Durfourth,
and carried twenty-eight souls, also including two merchants. These
three ships sailed from Ratcliffe on May 20, and, after tracing the
coast of Norway, rounded the North Cape in company. Here a storm
separated the _Bonaventure_ from her sister ships, and, fortunately
for her and her company, drove her to Vardö, in Norway. Willoughby
and his two ships succeeded in making the coast of Lapland, and spent
the winter on the desolate coast of the Kola Peninsula. In those
days, unfortunately, but little was known of the art and science of
wintering in the Arctic regions, and every member of the company
perished miserably of scurvy.
Chancellor, after waiting awhile at Vardö in the hope that the rest
of the fleet would join him there, determined to push on on his own
account, and he eventually succeeded in reaching the north coast of
Russia. The intelligence of his arrival was conveyed to the Czar,
Ivan Vasilovich, who was so much interested in what he heard that he
invited him to Moscow. There Chancellor spent the winter, and with
such ardour did he forward the interests of his country, that he
laid the foundations of that great trade between England and Russia
which has flourished ever since. It is worthy of note that his first
landing place is now marked by the great seaport of Archangel.
Chancellor’s second expedition was less fortunate, for the gallant
sailor lost his life in his attempt to continue his work. He
reached Russia in safety, and once more repaired to Moscow, where
he continued the negotiations which he had previously begun. While
returning home, however, his ship was wrecked in Pitsligo Bay on the
east coast of Scotland and he was drowned.
The expedition of Chancellor and Willoughby had, of course, been
primarily sent out with a view to finding a north-east passage
to China, and these negotiations with Russia were a side issue
not originally contemplated by its promoters. Consequently, while
Chancellor was away on his second voyage, the Company of Merchants
Adventurers equipped a second expedition for the discovery of the
North-East Passage, which they placed under the command of Stephen
Burrough. The _Searchthrift_, as the ship was named, set sail on
April 23, 1556, but it was stopped by fog and ice, and Burrough was
obliged to return to England without accomplishing his mission,
though he succeeded in discovering Nova Zembla.
The next English mariner to win fame for himself by his adventures
in the Arctic seas was Martin Frobisher, who, under the auspices of
Queen Elizabeth, the Earl of Warwick, a well-known merchant named Lok
and others, fitted out a fleet of three cockle-shells, the united
burden of which was only 73 tons, and set sail in 1576, with intent
to discover the North-West Passage. The chief result of Frobisher’s
voyage was a vast mass of very misleading information. On reaching
Davis Strait he came to the conclusion that it bisected Greenland, an
error which retained its place in the maps for some three centuries.
In the middle of the strait he discovered an island which did not
exist, while he brought home with him the interesting information
that large deposits of gold existed on the shores which he had
visited. On the strength of this all sorts of plans for working these
deposits were taken up, which only ended in the financial loss and
bitter disappointment of their promoters. Frobisher undertook the
command of two subsequent expeditions, but neither of them resulted
in any discoveries of much value. His name, however, will always be
kept alive by the discovery of Frobisher and Hudson Straits, both of
which he entered on his first journey.
We now come to by far the most important of these early voyages,
namely that made by John Davis, of Sandridge, in 1585. Davis was
a splendid old sea-dog of the finest type—shrewd, patient, and of
absolutely indomitable courage. So high was his reputation, that when
a number of merchants, headed by William Saunderson, determined to
fit out a new expedition for the discovery of the North-West Passage,
they offered him the command, and their offer was promptly accepted.
The expedition, which consisted of two ships, the _Sunshine_, of 50
tons, and carrying twenty-three men, and the _Moonshine_, 35 tons,
and carrying nineteen men, started on June 7, and by July 19 it was
off the south-east coast of Greenland, where Davis heard for the
first time the grinding together of the great icepacks. The shore
looked so barren and forbidding—“lothsome” is the epithet which Davis
applied to it—that he named it “Desolation.” Rounding the southern
point of Greenland and bearing northward, he soon reached lat. 64°,
where he moored his ships among some “green and pleasant isles,”
inhabited by natives who were very friendly disposed and quite ready
to trade with him. From these he learnt that there was a great sea
towards the north and west, so he set sail and shaped his course
W.N.W., expecting to get to China. Crossing the strait which now
bears his name, he sighted land in 66° 40′ and anchored in Exeter
Sound. The hill above them they named Mount Raleigh; the foreland to
the north, Cape Dyer; and that to the south, Cape Walsingham—names
which they still bear. The season was too far advanced for him to
attempt to explore the sound, but he discovered the wealth of those
regions in whales, seals, and deerskins—a discovery which, it need
hardly be said, was very highly valued by the merchants who had
equipped the expedition.
As was only natural, both Davis and his patrons were anxious to
continue the discoveries thus auspiciously begun, and May 7, 1586,
saw him starting on his second expedition, his fleet strengthened
by the addition of the _Merimade_, a ship of 120 tons. She did not
prove of very much service, however, for she deserted in lat. 66°,
and Davis went on his way without her. He did not succeed in adding
anything of value to his discoveries of the previous year, merely
coasting southward along Labrador, without observing the entrance to
Hudson Strait.
Davis’s third expedition left on May 19, 1587, and consisted of
three ships, the _Elizabeth_, the _Sunshine_, and the _Ellen_. On
reaching lat. 67° 40′ he left two of his ships to prosecute fishing,
and sailed on by himself on a voyage of discovery. He came, as he
tells us himself, “to the lat. of 75°, in a great sea, free from
ice, coasting the western shore of Desolation.... Then I departed
from that coast, thinking to discover the north parts of America.
And after I had sailed toward the west near forty leagues, I fell
upon a great bank of ice. The wind being north, and blew much, I was
constrained to coast towards the south, not seeing any shore west
from me. Neither was there any ice towards the north, but a great
sea, free, large, very salt and blue, and of an unsearchable depth.
So coasting towards the south, I came to the place where I left the
ships to fish, but found them not. Thus being forsaken and left in
this distress, referring myself to the merciful providence of God,
I shaped my course for England, and unhoped for of any, God alone
relieving me, I arrived at Dartmouth. By this last discovery it
seemed most manifest that the passage was free and without impediment
toward the north; but by reason of the Spanish fleet, and unfortunate
time of Master Secretary’s death, the voyage was omitted, and never
since attempted.” So ended the Arctic voyages of John Davis. “The
discoveries which he made ...,” says Sir John Ross, “proved of great
commercial importance; since to him, more than to any preceding or
subsequent navigator, has the whale fishery been indebted.”
In the meantime interest in the North-East Passage had by no means
subsided; indeed, it had actually been quickened by Philip II.’s
accession to the throne of Portugal and by the consequent fact that
Spain and Portugal, not content with already holding the monopoly of
the route to the East, attempted to make their influence felt upon
the trade operations of the nations of Northern Europe. It was in
1580 that Arthur Pet, in the _George_, and Charles Jackson, in the
_William_, sailed from England under the auspices of the Muscovy
Company, with instructions to push as far east as they possibly
could. The expedition was singularly ill-found, for the burden of
the _George_ was only 40 tons, her crew consisting of nine men and a
boy, while the _William_ was but half the size of her sister ship,
and carried a crew of five men and a boy. The adventurers, however,
made light of the difficulties that beset them, and, after making
Nova Zembla in the neighbourhood of the South Goose Cape, they turned
south and, coasting along Waigat Island, entered the mouth of the
Pechora. Thence they pushed their way into the Kara Sea, being the
first sailors from Western Europe who ever achieved such a feat.
The Muscovy Company does not seem to have considered it worth its
while to proceed with the exploration of these unattractive regions,
but the Dutch, who were no less anxious than the English to find a
North-East Passage, sent out in 1594 an expedition which consisted of
three ships, commanded by Willem Barents, Nay, and Tetgales. Barents
attempted to find a passage round the north of Nova Zembla, while his
companions turned south and made their way into the Kara Sea. The
reports which these pioneers brought home with them so encouraged
their fellow-countrymen, that they were sent off with a fleet of
seven ships in the following year to continue their discoveries. This
expedition penetrated a little further along the coast, but it by no
means succeeded in fulfilling its mission, and the States-General
became rather chary of spending any more money upon the venture.
Accordingly they contented themselves with offering a large reward
to any person or persons who could find a practicable passage to
China, and left it to private enterprise to do the rest. The result
of this step was that a company of merchants fitted out two ships
of discovery in 1596, and gave the command of one of them to John
Cornelius Ryp and of the other to Heemskeerck, appointing Barents
chief pilot to the latter. On June 9 they discovered an island which
they called Bear Island, in memory of a terrific encounter that they
had with a polar bear there. They now found that their progress
eastwards was checked by ice, and they accordingly stood north,
with the result that it fell to their lot to be the discoverers of
Spitzbergen. They spent two days in a bay which appears to have been
that known as Fair Haven, and then, after an ineffectual attempt to
push further north, they returned to Bear Island, where, owing to a
difference of opinion as to the best course to pursue, they parted
company, Ryp revisiting the coast of Spitzbergen, while Barents set
his course for Nova Zembla. We may mention parenthetically that
Heemskeerck was not himself a sailor, and that, in consequence, the
lion’s share of the honours which this expedition earned has always
been given to Barents, on whom the navigation of the ship necessarily
devolved.
[Illustration: STRANDED IN NOVA ZEMBLA]
The rest of the story of this unfortunate voyage is one of terrible
trials borne with heroic fortitude. While coasting along the shore
of Nova Zembla, Barents suddenly found himself in the midst of heavy
ice, and time after time his ship only just escaped destruction by
the squeezing together of the floes. His duty to his employers always
being uppermost in his mind, he bravely attempted to push on to the
east, but he soon found that that was impossible, and that all his
efforts must be directed towards getting his ship home. As he drew
near the shore, however, in the hope of finding a little open water
there, the ice bore down upon it, crushed his boats to pieces and
almost annihilated his ship. To add to his misfortunes, a northerly
gale arose, which placed him in an even more dangerous position
than before. He now found himself to the east of the island in an
inlet which he named Ice Haven, but which is now called Barents Bay,
with his retreat cut off both to the north and to the south. There
was nothing for him to do, therefore, but to make the most of an
exceedingly bad business and spend the winter where he was. Now it
must be remembered that no traveller had ever yet passed a winter
in the Arctic regions, and that Barents and his men were totally
unprepared for such an emergency. They had little food, less fuel,
no proper clothes and, last but by no means least, their ship was
not suited for a winter abode. In the midst of their misfortunes,
however, they kept up their hearts, and instantly set about building
a hut wherein they could spend the long, dark months.
Fortunately for them there was an abundance of driftwood on the
island “driven upon the shoare, either from Tartaria, Muscovia, or
elsewhere, for there was none growing upon that land, wherewith, as
if God had purposely sent them to us, we were much comforted.” This
driftwood lay at a distance of some eight miles from the site of this
house, and the labour of fetching it was enhanced by the darkness
which was now setting in, and by the ferocity of the bears which
haunted the neighbourhood and were a constant source of danger to the
party. The Dutchmen, however, worked with a will, and by October 24
they had moved into their new abode, one of the features of which was
a wine cask, with a square opening cut in its side, which was set up
in a corner and used as a bath.
The bears afforded them some fresh meat up till November 3, when
they and the sun disappeared at one and the same time. After this
they occasionally succeeded in trapping foxes, but the cold was so
intense that they were often unable to venture out of the house for
days together. “It blew so hard and snowed so fast,” writes Gerrit
de Veer, the chronicler of the expedition, “that we should have
smothered if we had gone out into the air; and to speake truth, it
had not been possible for any man to have gone one ship’s length,
though his life had laine thereon; for it was not possible for us
to go out of the house. One of our men made a hole open at one of
our doores ... but found it so hard wether that he stayed not long,
and told us that it had snowed so much that the snow lay higher than
our house.” Again, “It frose so hard that as we put a nayle into
our mouths (as when men worke carpenter’s worke they use to doe),
there would ice hang thereon when we tooke it out againe, and made
the blood follow.” Or, “It was so extreme cold that the fire almost
caste no heate; for as we put our feete to the fire, we burnt our
stockings before we could feele the heate.... And, which is more,
if we had not sooner smelt than felt them, we should have burnt
them quite away ere we had knowne it.” De Veer also tells us that
the clothes on the backs even of those who sat near the fire were
frequently covered with hoar-frost, and that the beer and all the
spirits were frozen solid. Yet in the midst of all this he was able
to make the following entry in his journal: “We alwaies trusted in
God that hee would deliver us from thence towards sommer time either
one way or another.... We comforted each other giving God thanks that
the hardest time of the winter was passed, being in good hope that we
should live to talke of those things at home in our owne country.” It
was in this spirit of patient resignation that the brave Dutchmen met
all their troubles.
Even when the sun returned it brought them but little relief from
their sufferings, for the intensity of the cold seemed to increase,
and there was no hope that the ice in their harbour would break up
early. The ship was so badly damaged that she could not survive the
voyage home, so they set about repairing the boats as best they
could, with a view to crossing in them the thousand miles of sea
that lay between them and Lapland. At last the time came for them
to make their departure, but Barents was now so ill that he had to
be taken to the boat on a sledge. His courage, however, was still
indomitable, as this passage in De Veer’s account shows: “Being at
the Ice Point the maister called to William Barents to know how he
did, and William Barents made answer and said, Quite well, mate. I
still hope to be able to run before we get to Wardhuus. Then he spak
to me and said: Gerrit, if we are near the Ice Point, just lift me up
again. I must see that point once more.” His courage, however, was
greater than his strength, and on June 20, six days after the start,
the end came. We quote our chronicler once more: “William Barents
looked at my little chart, which I had made of our voyage, and we had
some discussion about it; at last he laid away the card and spak unto
me saying, Gerrit, give me something to drink and he had no sooner
drunke but he was taken with so sodain a qualme, that he turned his
eies in his head and died presently. The death of William Barents put
us in no small discomfort, as being the chiefe guide and onely pilot
on whom we reposed ourselves next under God; but we could not strive
against God, and therefore we must be content.”
The sufferings of the party of fifteen on their terrible voyage over
the stormy and ice-laden sea were scarcely less terrible than those
which they had endured on the island. Such was their courage and
determination, however, that they at last reached Lapland in safety,
where they had the satisfaction of finding Cornelius Ryp, on whose
vessel they were conveyed back to Holland.