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
The same day [318] the height of the sunne being taken, it was found to
be 76 degrees and 24 minutes, and then they sailed north-east 3 [12]
miles, and after that north-east and by east 4 [16] miles, and vpon the
29 of July came into the ice againe.
The 29 of July the height of the sunne being taken with the
crosse-staffe, astrolabium, and quadrant, [319] they found it to bee
eleuated aboue the horizon 32 degrees, her declination being 19
degrees, which substracted from 32 there resteth 13 degrees of the
equator, which being substracted from 90 there rested 77 degrees; and
then the neerest north point of Noua Zembla, called the Ice Point,
[320] lay right east from them.
There they found certaine stones that glistered like gold, which for
that cause they named gold-stones, [321] and there also they had a
faire bay with sandy ground.
Upon the same day they wound south-ward againe, and sailed south-east
[322] 2 [8] miles betweene the land and the ice, and after that from
the Ice Point east, and to the south-ward [323] 6 [24] miles to the
Islands of Orange; and there they laboured forward [324] betweene the
land and the ice, with faire still weather, and vpon the 31 of July got
to the Islands of Orange. And there went to one of those islands, where
they found about 200 walrushen or sea-horses, lying upon the shoare to
baske [325] themselues in the sunne. This sea-horse is a wonderfull
strong monster of the sea, much bigger then an oxe, which keepes
continually in the seas, hauing a skinne like a sea-calfe or seale,
with very short hair, mouthed like a lyon, and many times they lie vpon
the ice; they are hardly killed vnlesse you strike them iust vpon the
forehead; it hath foure feet, but no eares, and commonly it hath one or
two young ones at a time. And when the fisher-men chance to find them
vpon a flake of ice [326] with their yong ones, shee casteth her yong
ones before her into the water, and then takes them in her armes, and
so plungeth vp and downe with them, and when shee will reuenge herselfe
vpon the boats, or make resistance against them, then she casts her
yong ones from her againe, and with all her force goeth towards the
boate; whereby our men were once in no small danger, for that the
sea-horse had almost stricken her teeth into the sterne of their boate,
thinking to ouerthrowe it; but by means of the great cry that the men
made, shee was afraid, and swomme away againe, and tooke her yong ones
againe in her armes. They haue two teeth sticking out of their mouthes,
on each side one, each beeing about halfe an elle long, and are
esteemed to bee as good as any iuorie or elophants teeth, specially in
Muscouia, Tartaria, and there abouts where they are knowne, for they
are as white, hard, and euen as iuory. [327]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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