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 next writer to be mentioned is Johann Reinhold Forster, who, in his
Voyages and Discoveries in the North, [112] after referring to De
Veer’s statement respecting Oliver Brunel,—whom, however, he styles
“Bennel”, on what authority it is impossible to say—adds in a note:—“It
is manifest that the navigators mentioned here, who had been in Nova
Zembla previous to Barentz’s arrival there, were Englishmen; for the
name Oliver Bennel is entirely English, and the name of the inlet,
which Barentz calls Constint Sarch, can hardly have been any other than
Constant Search; but in which of the known voyages of the English into
these parts this place was thus named, or whether Oliver Bennel made a
voyage for the sole purpose of making discoveries, or was cast away
here in his way to other regions, cannot easily be determined, for want
of proper information on the subject.”
The absurdity of Forster’s derivation of the name Kostin Shar is
manifest from the explanation of it given in page 30 (note 4) of the
present work. And as to the allegation that “the name Oliver Bennel is
entirely English”, it could only have been made by a foreigner. On the
contrary, it may be asserted that such a name as “Bennel” is altogether
un-English; and were it not for the cosmopolitan character of our
English surnames, it might—had it really been that of the individual in
question—in itself be fairly taken as evidence that he was not an
Englishman. With much more reason might we, at the present day, claim
“Brunel” as an English name. Probably Forster had in his mind the
“entirely English” name of Stephen Bennet, the well-known walrus-hunter
on Bear (Cherie) Island.
But the confusion as to Oliver Brunel does not rest here. Sir John
Barrow, in his work already cited, [113] says:—“The Dutch themselves
admit, that an Englishman of the name of Brunell or Brownell, ‘moved
with the hope of gain, went from Enkhuysen to Pechora’, where he lost
all by shipwreck, after he had been on the coast of Nova Zembla, and
given the name of Costin-sarca (qu. Coasting-search ?) to a bay
situated in about 71½°.” And in another place, [114] the same writer
speaks of Oliver Brunel as “an Englishman, of whom a vague mention only
is made by the Dutch.”
With the statements of the various writers who preceded Barrow before
us, we can see at a glance, though no authorities are cited by him,
that he took that of Purchas as his basis, modifying it by means of
those of Hudson, Logan, and Forster. It is to be regretted that he did
not refer to the original Dutch authority cited by Purchas.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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