WE SAIL FOR BEAR ISLAND,AND SPITZBERGEN--CHERIE ISLAND--BARENTZ-SIR HUGH WILLOUGHBY--PARRY'S ATTEMPT TO REACHTHE NORTH POLE--AGAIN AMONGST THE ICE--ICEBLINK--FIRSTSIGHT OF SPITZBERGEN--WILSON--DECAY OF OUR HOPES--CONSTANTSTRUGGLE WITH THE ICE--WE REACH THE 80DEGREES N.LAT.--AFREER SEA--WE LAND IN SPITZBERGEN--ENGLISH BAY--LADYEDITH'S GLACIER--A MIDNIGHT PHOTOGRAPH--NO REINDEER TOBE SEEN--ET EGO IN ARCTIS--WINTER IN SPITZBERGEN--PTARMIGAN--THE BEAR-SAGA--THE "FOAM"MONUMENT--SOUTHWARDS--SIGHT THE GREENLAND ICE--A GALE--WILSON ONTHE MAELSTROM--BREAKERS AHEAD--ROOST--TAKING A SIGHT--THRONDHJEM.
Throndhjem,Aug.22nd,1856.
We have won our laurels,after all!We have landed in Spitzbergen--almost at its most northern extremity;and the little "Foam"has sailed to within 630miles of the Pole;that is to say,within 100miles as far north as any ship has ever succeeded in getting.
I think my last letter left us enjoying the pleasant hospitalities of Kaafiord.
The genial quiet of that last evening in Norway was certainly a strange preface to the scenes we have since witnessed.So warm was it,that when dinner was over,we all went out into the garden,and had tea in the open air;the ladies without either bonnets or shawls,merely plucking a little branch of willow to brush away the mosquitoes;and so the evening wore away in alternate intervals of chat and song.At midnight,seawards again began to swirl the tide,and we rose to go,--not without having first paid a visit to the room where the little daughters of the house lay folded in sleep.Then descending to the beach,laden with flowers and kind wishes waved to us by white handkerchiefs held in still whiter hands,we rowed on board;up went the napping sails,and dipping her ensign in token of adieu--the schooner glided swiftly on between the walls of rock,until an intervening crag shut out from our sight the friendly group that had come forth to bid us "Good speed."In another twenty-four hours we had threaded our way back through the intricate fiords;and leaving Hammerfest three or four miles on the starboard hand,on the evening of the 28th of July,we passed out between the islands of Soroe and Bolsvoe into the open sea.
My intention was to go first to Bear Island,and ascertain for myself in what direction the ice was lying to the southward of Spitzbergen.
Bear--or Cherie Island,is a diamond-shaped island,about ten miles long,composed of secondary rocks--principally sandstone and limestone-lying about 280miles due north of the North Cape.It was originally discovered by Barentz,the 9th of June,1596,on the occasion of his last and fatal voyage.Already had he commanded two expeditions sent forth by the United Provinces to discover a north-east passage to that dream-land--Cathay;and each time,after penetrating to the eastward of Nova Zembla,he had been foiled by the impenetrable line of ice.On this occasion he adopted the bolder and more northerly courses which brought him to Bear Island.Thence,plunging into the mists of the frozen sea,he ultimately sighted the western mountains of Spitzbergen.Unable to proceed further in that direction,Barentz retraced his steps,and again passing in sight of Bear Island,proceeded in a south-east direction to Nova Zembla,where his ships got entangled in the ice,and he subsequently perished.
Towards the close of the sixteenth century,in spite of repeated failures,one endeavour after another was made to penetrate to India across these fatal waters.
The first English vessel that sailed on the disastrous quest was the "Bona Esperanza."in the last year of King Edward VI.Her commander was Sir Hugh Willoughby,and we have still extant a copy of the instructions drawn up by Sebastian Cabot--the Grand Pilot of England,for his guidance.Nothing can be more pious than the spirit in which this ancient document is conceived;expressly enjoining that morning and evening prayers should be offered on board every ship attached to the expedition,and that neither dicing,carding,tabling,nor other devilish devices--were to be permitted.Here and there were clauses of a more questionable morality,--recommending that natives of strange lands be "enticed on board,and made drunk with your beer and wine;for then you shall know the secrets of their hearts."The whole concluding with an exhortation to all on board to take especial heed to the devices of "certain creatures,with men's heads,and the tails of fishes,who swim with bows and arrows about the fiords and bays,and live on human flesh."On the 11th of May the ill-starred expedition got under way from Deptford,and saluting the king,who was then lying sick at Greenwich,put to sea.By the 30th of July the little fleet--three vessels in all--had come up abreast of the Loffoden islands,but a gale coming on,the "Esperanza"was separated from the consorts.
Ward-huus--a little harbour to the east of the North Cape-had been appointed as the place of rendezvous in case of such an event,but unfortunately,Sir Hugh overshot the mark,and wasted all the precious autumn time in blundering amid the ice to the eastward.At last,winter set in,and they were obliged to run for a port in Lapland.
Here,removed from all human aid,they were frozen to death.A year afterwards,the ill-fated ships were discovered by some Russian sailors,and an unfinished journal proved that Sir Hugh and many of his companions were still alive in January,1554.
The next voyage of discovery in a north-east direction was sent out by Sir Francis Cherie,alderman of London,in 1603.After proceeding as far east as Ward-huus and Kela,the "Godspeed"pushed north into the ocean,and on the 16th of August fell in with Bear Island.Unaware of its previous discovery by Barentz,Stephen Bennet--who commanded the expedition--christened the island Cherie Island,in honour of his patron,and to this day the two names are used almost indiscriminately.
