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
By writings receiued from thee, as also by reports, wee vnderstand
thou wouldest have us seeke out the mouth of the riuer Ob; which we
are content to doe, and thou must giue therefore fiftie rubbles: it
is requisite to goe to seeke it out with two cochimaes or
companies, [78] and each cochima must haue ten men; and wee must
goe by the riuer Pechora vpwards in the spring, by the side of the
ice, as the ice swimmeth in the riuer, which will aske a fortnights
time; and then we must fall into Ouson riuer, and fall downe with
the streame before we come to Ob, a day and a night in the spring.
Then it will hold vs eight dayes to swimme downe the riuer Ob,
before we come to the mouth: therefore send vs a man that can
write; and assure thy selfe the mouth of Ob is deepe. On the Russe
side of Ob soiourne Samoeds, called Vgorskai and Sibierskie
Samoeds; and on the other side dwel another kind of Samoeds, called
Monganet or Mongaseisky Samoeds. We must passe by fiue castles that
stand on the riuer of Ob. The name of the first is Tesuoi-gorodok,
which standeth vpon the mouth of the riuer Padou. The second small
castle is Nosoro-gorodock, and it standeth hard vpon the side of
Ob. The third is called Necheiourgoskoy. The fourth is Charedmada.
The fift is Nadesneàa, that is to say, the castle of Comfort or
Trust, [79] and it standeth vpon the riuer Ob, lowermost of all the
former castles toward the sea.
Heretofore your people haue bin at the said riuer of Obs mouth with
a ship, and there was made shipwracke, and your people were slaine
by the Samoeds, which thought that they came to rob and subdue
them. The trees that grow by the riuer are firres, and a kinde of
white, soft, and light firre, which we call yell. The bankes on
both sides are very high, and the water not swift, but still and
deepe. Fish there are in it, as sturgeons, and cheri, and pidle,
and nelma, a dainty fish like white salmons, and moucoun, and sigi,
and sterlidi; but salmons [80] there are none. Not farre distant
from the maine, at the mouth of Ob, there is an island, [81]
whereon resort many wilde beasts, as white beares, and the morses,
and such like. And the Samoeds tell vs, that in the winter season
they oftentimes finde there morses teeth. If you would haue us
trauell to seeke out the mouth of Ob by sea, we must goe by the
isles of Vaygats and Noua Zembla, and by the land of Matpheoue,
that is, by Matthewes Land. And assure thy selfe, that from Vaygats
to the mouth of Ob by sea, is but a small matter to sayle. Written
at Pechora, the yeare 7092, the twenty one of February.
Master Marsh also learned these distances of Places and Ports from
Caninos to Ob by sea.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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