This movement on the part of the merchants of Middelburg and Enkhuysen had the effect of inducing those of Amsterdam to desire to participate in the enterprise, or, it should rather be said, to undertake one on their own account, having the same general object in view, but adopting a somewhat different mode of carrying it out. Instead of attempting a way to China by passing between Novaya Zemlya and the Russian continent, the Amsterdammers, at the instance of the celebrated cosmographer and astronomer, Peter Plancius, decided on sending their vessel round to the north of Novaya Zemlya, as offering a far easier and preferable route. This difference of opinion between the promoters of the two parts of the first expedition must be borne in mind, as explaining several circumstances which, in the course of our subsequent narrative, will have to be adverted to. A third vessel was accordingly fitted out by the merchants of Amsterdam, aided by the court of admiralty there. It was of the same size and character as the other two, and like Tetgales’s vessel was named the Mercury (Mercurius); [121] its command being entrusted to William Barents, [122] who took with him also a fishing-boat belonging to Ter Schelling. [123] Before proceeding further, a few words must be said respecting the individual whose name has become inseparably associated with the three memorable expeditions, of which the first is now under consideration. Willem Barentszoon—that is to say, William, the son of Barent or Bernard—was a native of Ter Schelling, an island belonging to the province of Friesland, and lying to the north-east of Vlieland or ’tVlie. He was also a burgher of Amsterdam. Of his family and early life no particulars have been handed down to us. But that he was not of any considerable family is manifest from his having, like most of his countrymen in the lower, or even the middle ranks of life, no other surname than the patronymic, Barents-zoon. He possessed, however, a good, if not a learned education, as is proved by the translation made by him from the High Dutch into his native tongue of the “Treatise of Iver Boty, a Gronlander,” which together with a note written by him on the tides in the Sea of Kara, was found by Purchas “amongst Master Hakluyt’s paper,” and preserved by him, and which, following that laborious collector’s example, we have “thought good to adde hither for Barents or Barentsons sake.” [124] He appears also to have written the narrative of the first voyage, which was published by Gerrit de Veer, and of which a translation is given in the present volume. Nothing to that effect is stated by De Veer; but as the latter did not go on that voyage, he must necessarily have obtained the particulars of it from some one who did, and from Linschoten’s statement [125] it may be inferred that this was Barents himself.