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the needle, quoting the authors out of him, and the page where they are to be found.

An. 1360. Nicholas de Linna, or of Linn, a friar of Oxford, who was an able astronomer, took a voyage with others into the most northern islands of the world; where leaving his company he travelled alone, and made draughts of all those northern parts, which at his return he presented to king Edward III. This friar made five voyages into those parts; for this he quotes Gerardus Mercator, and Mr. John Dee, Hak. p. 122. And this, though it is not there mentioned, being sixty years after the discovery of the compass, we may look upon as one of the first trials of this nature made upon the security of the magnetical direction in these northern seas. Yet after this for many years we find no other discovery attempted this way, but rather all such enterprises seemed to be wholly laid aside, till

An. 1553. and in the reign of king Edward VI. sir Hugh Willoughby was sent out with three ships to discover Cathay and other northern parts. He sailed in May, and having spent much time about the northern islands subject to Denmark, where he found no commodity but dried fish and train oil, he was forced about the middle of September, after losing the company of his other two ships, to put into a harbour in Lapland, called Arzina, where they could find no inhabitants, but thinking to have wintered there were all frozen to death. However the Edward, which was the second ship in this expedition, and commanded by Richard Chancellor, who was chief pilot for the voyage, having lost sir Hugh Willoughby, made its way for the port of Wardhouse in Norway, where they had appointed to meet if parted by storms. Chancellor staid there seven days, and perceiving none of his company came to join him, proceeded on his voyage so fortunately, that within a few days he arrived in the bay of St. Nicholas on the coast of Muscovy, where he was friendly received by the natives, being the first ship that ever came upon that coast. Chancellor himself went to the court of Mosco, where he settled a trade betwixt England and Muscovy, with John Basilowitz the great

duke, or czar, then reigning. This done, Chancellor returned home with the honour of the first discoverer of Russia.

An. 1556. Stephen Burrough was sent out in a small vessel to discover the river Ob: he sailed in April, and in May came upon the coast of Norway: whence continuing his voyage, in July he arrived at Nova Zembla, that is, the new land, where he received directions how to shape his course for the river Ob. He spent some time in search of it, but coming to the straits of Weygats found no passage, and the summer season being almost spent, returned to Colmogro in Muscovy, where he wintered, designing to prosecute his voyage the next summer, but was countermanded, and so this was all the event of the expedition.

An. 1558. Anthony Jenkinson sailed for Muscovy with four ships under his command: he left his ships, and travelled by land to Mosco, where having been nobly entertained by the czar, he obtained his pass, and continued his journey through Muscovy across the kingdoms of Casan and Astracan, where shipping himself on the river Volga he sailed down into the Caspian sea, having travelled by land about six hundred leagues in the czar's dominions from Mosco. On the Caspian sea he spent twenty-seven days, after which landing, he proceeded five days journey by land among a sort of wild Tartars with a caravan of one thousand camels; then twenty days more through a desert, suffering much through hunger and thirst. This brought him again to another part of the Caspian sea, where formerly the river Oxus fell into it, which now, he says, runs into another river, not far from hence, called Ardock, which runs toward the north and under ground above five hundred miles, after which it rises again, and unburdens itself in the lake of Kitay. Hence he continued his discovery amidst those countries of Tartars to Boghar in Bactria, whence he returned to Mosco.

An. 1561. He returned to Muscovy with letters from queen Elizabeth to the czar; and taking the same way as before down to the Caspian sea, crossed over it into Hircania, where being nobly entertained, and conducted

by the princes of that country, he passed through to the court of the king of Persia at Casbin, where he obtained several privileges for the English nation, and returned home in safety the same way he went.

An. 1580. Mr. Arthur Pet and Mr. Charles Jackman sailed in May from Harwich in two barks to make discoveries in the north-east beyond Weygats. In June they doubled the north cape of Norway, and having spent some days in that part of Norway, continued their voyage into the bay of Petzora ; where Jackman's vessel being in no good sailing condition he left Pet, who proceeded on to the coast of Nova Zembla, where in July he met with much ice, yet making his way though part of it, though with great difficulty, he at last came to the straits of Weygats: there he drew as close as the shoal water would permit, coming into two fathom and a half water, and sending his boat to sound till he found there was not water enough even for the boat in the strait, and therefore returned the same way he came. A few days after Pet met with Jackman again in some distress, as not being able to steer, his ship's stern-post being broken, and the rudder hanging from the stern. Having remedied this the best they could for the present, they both stood northward to endeavour to find some passage that way; but meeting with much ice, they despaired of success, and resolved to turn again to Weygats, there to consult what was farther to be done. All the way thither they met with such quantities of ice, that some days they were not able to make any way. Being come again upon the Weygats, they made another attempt that way, but to as little purpose as before, the ice obstructing their progress. Wherefore winter now coming on, they found it necessary to quit their design for the present. Accordingly Pet being parted from Jackman, arrived safe in the river of Thames about the end of December this same year: Jackman put into a port in Norway betwixt Tronden and Rostock in October, where he wintered. In February following, he departed thence in company of a ship of the king of Denmark's towards Iceland, and was never more heard of. The English

having made these unsuccessful attempts, gave them over for many years; and the Dutch growing powerful at sea, resolved to try their fortune, hoping the failures of the English might help to point out to them what course they were to avoid, and what to follow; and accordingly,

An. 1594. The states fitted out three ships, commanded by William Barentz, Cornelius Cornelissen, and John Hugens: they all sailed together, but Barentz ran further up to the northward than the others, till he came into seventy-eight degrees of latitude, and in August met with much ice and abundance of sea-monsters, at which the seamen being discouraged they resolved to return home. The other two ships discovered some islands, and at last a strait or passage capable of the greatest ships, and above five or six leagues in length: being passed it, they came into an open and warmer sea, and upon the coast of Tartary near the river Ob or Oby, a very fruitful country. This they called the strait of Nassau, and might have gone further but for want of provisions. This done, they came back the same way very joyful to Holland. Meteren. Hist. of the Low Countries, lib. XVIII. This we see positively delivered, but with how much of truth I dare not decide; only must think it strange, that if such a strait had been once found, it should never be met with since, though often searched for, and once by the same persons that pretended to have been the first discoverers, as may be seen in the year 1596; yet we see this assertion repeated by the same author, who takes it from the relations of the sailors, and in the same place before quoted says, that

An. 1595. The states being much encouraged by the relation of these discoverers, fitted out seven ships, six of them to proceed on their voyage to China, Japan, &c. this way, and the seventh to bring back the news of their being passed the strait; but they met with too much ice at strait Nassau, coming to it too late by reason of the contrary winds they had in their passage thither yet the inhabitants of the place told them many

particulars more than they knew before: but they returned re infecta. Meteren. ubi sup.

An. 1596. The Dutch not discouraged by the former disappointment, fitted out two ships under the command of William Barentsen and John Cornelissen, who sailed on the eighteenth of May, and on the nineteenth of June found themselves in the latitude of 80 degrees, and eleven minutes, where they found a country they supposed to be Greenland, with grass, and beasts grazing like deer, &c. and less cold and ice than in 76 degrees: they turned back to an island they had before called the Island of Bears, because of the many bears they saw in it, and there parted company. Cornelissen went up again into 80 degrees of latitude, thinking to find a passage east of the land they had discovered, but returned home without doing any thing considerable. Barentsen made towards Nova Zembla, and coasted along it till he met with an island which he called Orange, in 77 degrees of latitude; thence he steered south and doubled a cape, but was stopped by ice, and making towards the land, on the last of August, was so inclosed that there was no stirring. They landed and built a house with timber and planks, into which they put all their provisions and goods, where they continued suffering much hardship all the winter. On the twenty-second of June they set out from thence in two boats they had repaired, leaving their ship among the ice, and an account in writing of their being there. Thus with much difficulty, they arrived at Cola in Lapland on the second of October 1597, where they found Cornelissen, who had made a voyage to Holland in the meanwhile, and was returned thither. Barentsen died by the way, but the survivors arrived in Holland on the twenty-ninth of October. Meteren. lib. XIX.

An. 1676. Captain John Wood in his majesty's ship the Speedwell, with the Prosperous Pink to attend him, sailed from the buoy of the Nore to discover the north-east passage. June the fourth he anchored in the island of Shetland, and the tenth sailed out again,

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