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112 THIRD VOYAGE OF TEH DUTCH
they would not have been able to bear. But Ged did not permit fo great a mifery to
overwhelm them.
On the twelfth they all proceeded together with hatchets, fpades, and all other ne-
ceflary implements, to {mooth a paflage by which they might drag the boats to the fea.
The labour was fevere: it was neceflary to break the ice, dig, throw it afide, tranfport
it, and undergo a fatigue not to be expreffled. Yet they would have confoled themfelves
if they could have done it in peace; but they were interrupted by a large ugly bear,
lean and fcraggy, coming from the main fea on a piece of ice, and which they conjec-
tured to come from Tartary, becaufe they had already met with it formerly at twenty
or thirty leagues at fea. As they did not expect fuch an adventure, only the furgeon
had a mufket, and De Veer was obliged to quit the others and run to the veffel to fetch
two or three more.
The bear perceiving De Veer detached from the company ran after him, and would
have reached him if they had not immediately fired to prevent it. The report made
the bear turn his head: he turned round and the furgeon fired a fecond time, which
wounded him: he immediately fled ; but being impeded in his flight by the inequalities
and height of the ice, feveral other fhots ftruck him, which knocked out his teeth, and
he expired.
The fourteenth was fine weather. The mafter and the carpenters went to the veffel,
where they completed the equipment of the fchuyt and fhallop, fo that it only required
to launch them. After this perceiving the waters were open, and that it blew frefh
from the S. W., the mafter told Barentfz, who had been fick for a confiderable time,
that he was of opinion they fhould embark.’ ‘This propofition was no fooner communi-
cated to the crew than it was accepted, and they prepared to launch the veffels.
Barentfz then wrote a memoir, containing the circumitances of their departure from
Holland, their voyage, their arrival at Novaya Zemlia, the ftay they made there, and
their retreat, and put it ina mufket charge, which he hung in the chimney, in order that
if any one fhould land in the fame place, they might be informed of what had happened
to them, fo as to profit by it, and to know by what adventure they found the remains
of a little houfe, which had been inhabited for ten months.
Befides this, as the voyage they were about to undertake with two fmall veffels with-
out any cover muft expofe them to imminent dangers, the mafter thought proper to
write two letters, which were figned by the whole crew, and one placed in each of the
veffels. Jn thefe was contained a recital of all they had fuffered while waiting for the
opening of the waters, and in the expectation that their veffel would be then difengaged
from the ice; that having been deceived in this hope, and the fhip always remaining
fixed, as they faw the feafon would foon pafs away, they had been obliged to abandon
it, and to expofe themfelves to the dangers of a voyage which delivered them to the
mercy of the winds and waves ; that they had judged proper to make a double memoir,
in cafe the two veflels fhould be feparated either by a {torm, or any other fortune of the
fea, or if one of the two fhould perifh, that it might be learned from the other how the
circumf{tances had come to pafs, and in it be found that teftimony for the confirmation
of what fhould be related by thofe who might chance to remain.
Thus after havin agreed in all arrangements, they drew to the fea the two vefiels,
and eleven fledyes laden with provifions, wine, and merchandife, which they were
careful to place in the beft manner poilible for their prefervation : that is to fay, fix
packets of fine woollen cloth; a cheft full of linen cloth; two packets of velvet ; two
{mall boxes full of money ; two cafks of articles neceflary for refitting, and clothes for
ile fhip’s company ; thirteen cafks of bread, one of cheefe; a {mall cafk of bacon, two
of
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