There can be no doubt that their stay at this particular spot was a forced one. At the same time, when we bear in mind that, on the second voyage in the year preceding, Barents and his colleague, Harman Janszoon, proposed that two of the vessels should winter in the Sea of Kara; and that, on the fitting out of this third expedition, they took up “as many vnmarryed men as they could, that they might not be disswaded, by means of their wiues and children, to leaue off the uoyage;” [209] it will not be unreasonable to infer that they went fully resolved and prepared, if obliged, to winter in those inhospitable regions. No words are sufficient to extol their exemplary conduct during their long and miserable stay there. Though no means are afforded of determining the precise degree of cold to which they were exposed, various incidents narrated by De Veer prove that it must have been intense; and it was not merely a sharp clear cold, which the experience of other Arctic explorers has shown may be borne to an almost inconceivable degree, but it was accompanied by terrific storms of wind and snow, so that “a man could hardly draw his breath,” [210] and they “could hardly thrust their heads out of the dore.” [211] One advantage was however derived from the snow which fell in such quantities as completely to cover up their house, and thereby imparted to it a degree of comparative warmth, without which it is most probable that their residence in it would not have been endurable. Yet during the whole time perfect order, discipline, and subordination, joined to the greatest unanimity and good feeling, prevailed among them. Scarcely a murmur passed their lips; and when, in the beginning of May, after they had remained shut up more than eight months, and the weather had the appearance of favouring their departure, some of the men “agreed amongst themselues to speake unto the skipper (Heemskerck), and to tell him that it was more than time to see about getting from thence”; [212] still each man was reluctant to be the spokesman, “because he had given them to understand that he desired to staie vntil the end of June, which was the best of the sommer, to see if the ship would then be loose”. [213] And even when at length they “agreed to speake to William Barents to moue the master to goe from thence”, De Veer is careful to explain that “it was not done in a mutinous manner, but to take the best counsell with reason and good advice, for they let themselves easily be talked over.” [214]