The Voyage of the Vega round Asia and Europe, Volume I and Volume IINordenskiöld, A. E. (Adolf Erik)
History
The Voyage of the Vega round Asia and Europe, Volume I and Volume II
Nordenskiöld, A. E. (Adolf Erik)
Arctic regions -- Discovery and exploration; Northeast Passage; Vega (Ship)
"Tuesday (the 14/4th) August we turned for the harborough
where Loshak's barke lay,[117] where, as before, we road
vnder an Island. And there he came aboord of vs and said
unto me: if God send wind and weather to serve, I will go
to the Ob with you, because the Morses were scant at these
Islands of Vaigats; but if he could not get to the riuer
of Ob, then he sayd hee would goe to the riuer of
Narainzay,[118] where the people were not altogether so
savage as the Samoyds of the Ob are: hee shewed me that
they will shoot at all men to the vttermost of their
power, that cannot speake their speech."
On the 15/5th of August much ice was seen to drift towards the haven
where the vessel lay, wherefore Burrough removed back to the place
where he had lain a few days before, and whose latitude he now found
to be 70 deg. 25'. Loshak left him unexpectedly the following day,
while Burrough was taking solar altitudes, and on the 19/9th
Burrough too weighed anchor to sail south along the coast of
Vaygats. After sailing about in these waters for a time, and being
exposed to a severe storm with an exceedingly heavy sea, Burrough,
on the 3rd Sept./23rd Aug., determined to turn. On the 21st/11th
September he arrived at Colmogro, where he wintered with a view to
continue his voyage next year to the Obi. This voyage, however, was
abandoned, because he instead went westwards in order to search for
two of the ships which accompanied Chancelor, and which had been
lost during the return voyage from Archangel.[119]
From this narrative we see that a highly developed Russian or
Russian-Finnish navigation was carried on as early as the middle of
the fifteenth century between the White Sea, the Petchora, Vaygats,
and Novaya Zemlya, and that at that time the Russians or Finns even
sailed to the Obi. The sketch, which Burrough gives of the Russian
or Russian-Finnish hunters, shows, besides, that they were brave and
skilful seamen, with vessels which for the time were very good, and
even superior to the English in sailing before the wind. With very
few alterations this sketch might also be applied to the present
state of things in these regions, which shows that they continue to
stand at a point which was then high, but is now low. Taking a
general view of matters, it appears as if these lands had rather
fallen behind than advanced in well-being during the last three
hundred years.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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