Verhael van de eerste Schip-vaert der Hollandische ende Zeeusche
Schepen doer’t Way-gat by Noorden Noorwegen, Moscovien ende
Tartarien om, na de Coninckrijcken Cathay ende China, Met drie
Schepen, uyt Texel gezeylt in den Jare 1594. Hier achter is
by-ghevoeght de beschrijvinghe van de Landen Siberia, Samoyeda,
ende Tingæsa. Seer vreemt on vermaackelijck om lesen. T’ Amsterdam.
Voor Ioost Hartgers, Boeck-verkooper in de Easthuys-steegh in de
Boeck-winckel bezijden het Stadt-huys, 1648. 4to.
And it re-appeared in 1650 with the same title. This work, though
professing on the title-page to be an account of the first voyage only,
contains an account of the second and third voyages also.
Another Dutch abstract was printed by G. J. Saeghman at Amsterdam, in
1663, with the following title:—
Verhael van de vier eerste Schip-Vaerden der Hollandtsche en
Zeeuwsche Schepen naar Nova Zembla, by Noorden Noorwegen, Moscovien
ende Tartarien om, na de Coninckrijcken Cathay en China. Uytgevaren
in de Jaren 1594, 1595, 1596, en 1609, ende hare wonderlijcke
avontueren, op de Reysen voor gevallen. Den laetsten druck van
nieuws ouersien, en met schoone Figueren verbetert. T’Amsterdam,
Gedruckt by Gillis Joosten Saeghman, Boeckdrucker en Boeck
verkooper, in de Nieuwe Straet. Anno 1663. 4to.
We have not had an opportunity of seeing this work, and therefore
cannot say whether or not it is a reprint of the last-mentioned
abstract. The fourth voyage of 1609 can only be that of Henry Hudson,
who undertook it at the instance of the Dutch East India Company. The
journal of this voyage, written by Robert Juet of Limehouse, “master’s
mate”, is given by Purchas in his “Pilgrimes”, vol. iii, pp. 581–595.
An abstract of De Veer’s work is likewise contained in the first volume
of the several editions of Blaeu’s “Great Atlas”, which have been
already described in page cxxv: in the Latin at page 24; in the French
at page 27; and in the Spanish at page 42. The Dutch edition we have
not seen.
German. A translation from Saeghman’s abstract appeared in 1675, in a
collection by Rudolf Capel, entitled, “Vorstellungen des Norden”.
Hamburg, 1675, 4to.; in the fifth chapter of which it is entered as
follows:—
Die von den Holländern zu vier unterschiedenen mahlen, nemlich in
Jahr c. 1594, 1595, 1596, und 1609, umsonst versuchte Seefarth
durchs Norden nach der Sineser Land Japan und Ost Indien. Auss der
Niederländischen in die Hochteutsche Sprache übersetzet.
Another edition appeared in 1678.
Another abstract in German was given in 1768, in Adelung’s Geschichte
der Schiffahrten, published at Halle, 1768. In speaking of the great
rarity of the original, Adelung acknowledges himself obliged to make
use of the summary in the French collection, next described, which he
collated with that of Capel.
French. The French collection to which we have just alluded, was edited
by Constantin de Renneville, under the title:—
Recueil des Voyages qui ont servi à l’établissement et aux progrès
de la Compagnie des Indes orientales, formée dans les provinces
Unies des Pays Bas. Amst., 1702, 1710, 1716, 1725, in 6 vols.; and
in 1754, in 6 vols. in 12mo.
This is an unacknowledged translation, with a slight alteration in the
language at the commencement of the work, from the Dutch collection
already described, “Begin ende Voortgangh,” etc.
English. In the year 1703, was published an English translation of the
above abstract, which was probably made from the French version by
Renneville.
A very brief summary of the three voyages is also given in the first
volume of Harris’s Navigantium et Itinerantium Bibliotheca, pp.
550–564. Lond. 1705. Fol.
The winter’s residence of the Dutch in Novaya Zemlya has been
repeatedly treated of in various forms. The most recent work on the
subject is probably a poem with the title—
De Overwintering der Hollanders op Nova Zembla gedicht van Tollens,
met Houtsneden van Henry Brown, naar teekeningen van I. H. I. van
den Bergh. Leeuwarden, G. T. W. Suringar, 1843. 4to.
Of the English translation by Phillip, which forms the text of the
present volume, we are unable to speak in very favourable terms.
Independently of a number of errors resulting evidently from the want
of a thorough acquaintance with the Dutch language, the work is
disfigured by numerous typographical errors, arising seemingly from the
circumstance that the translator placed his manuscript in the printer’s
hands, and never saw the work as it passed through the press. In the
notes at the foot of the text, in the present edition, these errors are
corrected, and attention is drawn to those cases in which subsequent
writers, who merely consulted Phillip’s translation of Purchas’s
abridgement of it, have thereby been misled. [228]
Besides De Veer’s narrative, Phillip translated from the Dutch the
three works mentioned below. [229] As one then who performed so much
for the cause which it is the object of the Hakluyt Society to promote,
he has a claim to our forbearance for all the imperfections of his
translation, which in spite of them, gives still no unapt
representation of the simplicity and quaintness of its Dutch original.
The editor has already acknowledged the aid afforded to him by Mr.
Vogel and Mr. Petermann. He has now also to express his obligation to
Mr. R. H. Major and Mr. W. B. Rye, of the British Museum, for much
valuable assistance in the bibliographical portions of this
Introduction. And he has further to record, that to his worthy friend
and preceptor in the Dutch language, Mr. John Bos,—who was employed by
him to make a new translation of De Veer’s text into English, in order
that he might be spared the inconvenience of collating the whole work
in the Reading Room of the British Museum,—he is indebted for much help
in the preparation of the index at the end of this volume, and also for
many curious particulars of information which none but an old
Amsterdammer could well have supplied.
February 15th, 1853.