However, the settlement at Kola now existed, and from thence efforts were made to carry on a direct trade with the Dwina. A trustworthy person was sent for that purpose on board of a Russian ship to Kholmogory, a town situated in the neighbourhood of the English settlement of Rose Island. He was instructed to learn the Russian language, and to try to obtain all possible information respecting the best manner of establishing commercial relations. That man was no other than Olivier Brunel, a character well known at that time, but in these days almost forgotten. His name ought to be remembered and honoured as it deserves, for Brunel was not only the founder of the White Sea trade of the Dutch, but he was also their first Arctic navigator. For this reason a better account of him than has been given in the former edition, will not be found out of place here. Dr. Beke saw in Olivier Brunel and Alferius two distinct persons, and did not agree with Hamel that they were the same individual. It is, therefore, necessary in the first place to give Mr. S. Muller’s arguments as to why he considers Hamel’s opinion the most trustworthy. We know (he says) that, in 1581, two persons, both going under the uncommon name of Olivier (of whom the one was “natione Belga”, the other “domo Bruxella”), lived on the shores of the White Sea. When it is remarked that, in 1578, only a few Netherlanders went to those shores, this conformity of name and country is indeed very remarkable. The scholarship of both was the same. The one, Alferius, was, as Balak says, no scholar, but a man of skilful practice; the other, Brunel, had passed his life as a commercial discoverer in the north. There is also a striking conformity in the condition of life of the two men. Alferius, “captivus aliquot annos vixit in Moscovitarum ditione, apud viros illic celeberrimos Jakonius et Unekius.” Brunel was for a few years a prisoner in Russia, and was delivered from his captivity by the Ameckers, who were very clever Russian merchants, living at Coolwitsogda, whom Brunel afterwards served. Jakonius and Unekius had already been taken by Lütke, who probably knew nothing of Brunel, to be the same as Jakov and Grigory Anikiew. Hamel was convinced that by the “Ameckers” the Anikiews from Sol-Wütschegodsk only could be meant, although Scheltema, his authority, had changed arbitrarily “Coolwitsogda” (Sol-Wütschegodsk) into “Cool” (Kola). To continue:—Alferius was sent to the Netherlands in 1581; Brunel went there every year. We find Alferius journeying along the coast of the Baltic; Brunel often travelled overland to Europe. Alferius, in the service of his masters, had often been at the Obi; Brunel had been for years commercial agent of the Russians, who yearly traded with the Obi. Alferius started from the Netherlands with the design of seeking out the north-east passage; Brunel is known as the first Dutch Arctic traveller.