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‘TO THE NORTH OF EUROPE. 113
of oil, fix of wine, two of vinegar, and the clothes of the crews. All this appeared fo
much when taken out of the veflel, that it might have been faid to be impolflible to ac-
commodate it in the little fpace of two fuch {mall veflels.
When the embarkment had taken place, they alfo carried on board two fick men,
Barent{z and another, who were difpofed in the two veflels, which the mafter caufed t >
be moored clofe to one another. At this time alfo he had the two memoirs figned, of
which mention has been made.
In fine, on the fourteenth of June 1597, at fix in the morning, they weighed anchor,
and fet fail from Novaya Zemlia with a wefterly wind: they arrived that day at the
Cape of the Ifles, where they {till met with much ice, and they remained there inclofed ;
which afflicted them in no fmall degree, under the apprehenfion they might continue
there: four of them landed to reconnoitre the country, and they knocked down four
birds from the rocks with ftones. j
On the fifteenth the ice being a little feparated, they doubled Cape Fleflingen, and
came to Cape Defire. On the fixteenth they were at Orange Ifle, where they. allo
landed, and having made a fire of the wood they found there, they melted the fnow
and put the water into fmall cafks for drink. ‘Three of them pafled om the ice to
another ifland, where they took three birds; but returning, the mafter, who was one of
the three, fell into a hole in the ice, where he was in danger of perithing, for there was
at that part a very rapid current. ‘They drefled the birds for the fick.
After they had again fet fail, and were arrived at Icy Cape, the two veffels joined, and
the mafter, who was not in the fame with Barentfz, afked him how he found himfelf.
Barentfz replied that he was better, and hoped he would {till be able to travel before
they arrived at their inn. He afked if they were at Icy Cape, and De Veer having an-
fwered him in the affirmative, he wifhed to be raifed up in order that he might behold
that cape once more, for which there was leifure enough, being again inclofed in the
ice, and the veflels completely furrounded.
On the morning of the feventeenth the flakes of ice ftruck again{t thefe two little
veffels in fo dreadful a manner, that the hair of the crew flood on end: they believed
themfelves at their laft hour, neither being able to ftop the courfe of thele floating
mafles, nor to prevent their being carried to leeward: they even found themfelves all
together fo prefled between two banks of ice, that they took their laft farewell of each
other. ©
At length refumiing courage, they endeavoured to come nearer to the firm ice, to
faften a cord and tow the veflels there, that they might be lefs expofed to the floating
flakes. When they had approached a little, there was no perfon who would go to
moor the cord ; the danger was too great: yet a virtue muft be made of neceflity, and
the ftrength of the balance prevail over the weak fide. In this dilemma De Veer, who
was the moft nimble among them, undertook to carry the cord, and leaped from one
flake of ice to the other, until, with the affiftance of God, he happily arrived on the
firm ice, and faftened the cord about an eminence of ice.
All the others then alfo left the veffels, and carried the fick in fheets on the ice,
where they placed fome other things under them in order that they might repofe.
They afterwards difeambarked whatever remained on board, and dragging the veflels on
the ice, they faw themfelves delivered from the fear of a death which had appeared al-
moft inevitable.
On the eighteenth they refitted their veffels which had been damaged from what
they had fuffered. They caulked the feams and covered them with tar-pawling having
happily found fome wood to make pitch. They afterwards landed to feek for eggs, to
“VOL. I. Q give
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