prepotentes Provinciarum Fœderatarum Ordines, duas naves, ductore Iohanne Hugonis à Linschot, versus fretum quod vulgò Weygats, totidemque ductore Guilielmo Bernardi, suasu D. Petri Plancij, recto supra Novam Zemblam cursu sententionem versus ituras, destinarunt.” Oliver Brunel, or “Bunel”, was therefore no Englishman, but a native of Brussels; and if the particulars thus recorded of him and of the motives of his enterprise be correctly stated, he would scarcely seem to be the Alferius of Balak’s letter to Mercator. Still, the point cannot be looked on as absolutely decided. One further remark is necessary with respect to the spelling of his name. On the one hand, it will be seen that, according to De Veer and Logan, it is “Brunel” or “Brunell”, while Hudson makes it to be “Brownell”, which latter may, however, be regarded as merely a broad pronunciation of the word, or perhaps an attempt to give it a vernacular and significant form;—a process with respect to proper names not unusual among seamen of all nations. On the other hand, Gerard writes “Bunel”. But this form cannot be allowed to stand in opposition to the conjoint authority of the three seamen, all writing separately and without concert; and we may quite reasonably conjecture the r to have been left out by Gerard, through some clerical or typographical error. Gerard’s work must have come to the knowledge of Purchas soon after its publication; for, in the year 1625, it is referred to by the latter [109] as his authority for the following statement:—“The Dutch themselues [110] write that after the English Russian trade, one Oliuer Bunell, moued with hope of gaine, went from Enckhuysen to Pechora, where he lost all by shipwracke, hauing discouered Costinsarca in Noua Zemla. These nauigations of the English, and that of Bunell, and the hopes of China and Cathay, caused the States Generall to send forth two shippes, vnder the command of Hugo Linschoten, to the Streights of Wey-gates, and two others, vnder William Bernards, by the perswasion of P. Plancius, to goe right northwards from Noua Zemla.” Nearly a century later, Witsen, in his oft-cited work, [111] writes as follows:—“Het zijn veele jaren geleden, en lange voor Willem Barents-zoons reis, dat eenen Olivier Bunel, met een scheepje van Enkhuizen uitgevaren, deze rivier [Petsora] heeft bezocht, daer hy veel pelterye, Rusch glas, en bergkristal vergaderd hadde; doch is aldaer komen te blyven.” Witsen does not cite any authority for this statement; but it bears internal evidence of having been taken from Gerard, whose work we know he had before him. That both he and Purchas should have written the name “Bunel”, and not “Brunel”, is perfectly natural, and adds nothing to the weight of evidence in favour of the former spelling.