The Three Voyages of William Barents to the Arctic Regions (1594, 1595, and 1596)Veer, Gerrit de
History
The Three Voyages of William Barents to the Arctic Regions (1594, 1595, and 1596)
Veer, Gerrit de
Barentsz, Willem, approximately 1550-1597; Northeast Passage
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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