The men were often obliged to drag the boats across intervening fields of ice; and sometimes, when the wind was contrary, they drew them up on a floating bank, and, making tents of the sails, camped out, as if on military service. The sentinels frequently challenged bears, and, on one occasion, three coming together and one being killed, the surviving two devoured their fallen companion. Through dangers and difficulties then unparalleled in navigation, they struggled hopefully on, descending the western coast of Nova Zembla towards the northern shores of Russia and Lapland. On the 16th of August, they met a Russian bark, which furnished them with such provisions as the captain could spare. On the 20th, they touched the coast of Lapland upon the White Sea, where they found thirteen Russians living in miserable huts upon the fish which they caught. On the 2d of September, they arrived at Kola, in Lapland, where they found three Dutch ships, one of which was their consort, which had been separated from them ten months before. Having no further use for their boats, they carried them with ceremony to the "Merchants' House," or Town-Hall, where they dedicated them to the memory of their long voyage of four hundred leagues over a tract never traversed before, and which they had accomplished in open boats. They started at once for home, and arrived on the 1st of November at Amsterdam, twelve in number. The city was greatly excited by the news of their return, for they had long since been given up for dead. The chancellor and the "ambassador of the very illustrious King of Denmark, Norway, the Goths and the Vandals" were at that moment at dinner. The voyagers were summoned to narrate their adventures before them,--which they did, "clad in white fox-skin caps." No voyage had hitherto been so fruitful in incident, peril, and displays of persevering courage and fortitude. Though it resulted in no discovery except that of the western coast of Nova Zembla, it served the useful purpose of demonstrating the difficulty, if not the impossibility, of effecting a northeast passage. [Illustration: FEMALE OTTER AND HER YOUNG.] [Illustration: THE FUNERAL OF MAHU AT BRAVA ISLAND.] CHAPTER XXXII. THE FIVE SHIPS OF ROTTERDAM--BATTLE AT THE ISLAND OF BRAVA--SEBALD DE WEERT--DISASTERS IN THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN--THE CREW EAT UNCOOKED FOOD--THE FLEET IS SCATTERED TO THE WINDS--ADVENTURES OF DE WEERT--A WRETCHED OBJECT--RETURN TO HOLLAND--VOYAGE OF OLIVER VAN NOORT--BARBAROUS PUNISHMENT--THE EMBLEM OF HOPE BECOMES A CAUSE OF DESPAIR--FIGHT WITH THE PATAGONIANS--ARREST OF THE VICE-ADMIRAL--HIS PUNISHMENT--DESCRIPTION OF A CHILEAN BEVERAGE--CAPTURE OF A SPANISH TREASURE-SHIP--A PILOT THROWN OVERBOARD--SEA-FIGHT OFF MANILLA--RETURN HOME, AFTER THE FIRST DUTCH VOYAGE OF CIRCUMNAVIGATION.