Chancellor and his chief men remained in Moscow through the winter, and when they departed to rejoin their ship at St. Nicholas for the homeward voyage, the captain carried a letter from the emperor to the English monarch granting freedom to his dominions and every facility of trade to English merchants and ships.
Thus Russia was discovered by sea to commercial Europe by Englishmen.
XI
VOYAGES FOR THE MUSCOVY COMPANY
The arrival back at London of Chancellor’s company in the autumn of 1554 was greeted with much rejoicing, while the tales that they told of the strange sights they had seen and the great things they had accomplished filled the merchant adventurers with admiration. Uneasiness over the fate of Sir Hugh Willoughby and the men of the two lost ships tempered their enthusiasm; but their hope and belief were strong that the missing ones would ultimately be safely found, and immediate steps were taken toward a search for them.
Acting upon Chancellor’s wondrous reports and the letters he brought, the English sovereign, now Mary, with her consort Philip of Spain, in February, 1555, granted a charter to the promoters under the name of the Merchant Adventurers of England, and constituted Sebastian Cabot governor of the corporation for life, in consideration that he had been the “chiefest setter forth” of the first voyage. Thus was established the great Muscovy Company with a monopoly of the new Russian trade, and empowered further to promote discoveries in unknown regions—"lands, territories, isles, dominions, and seigniories"—north, northeast, and northwest.
In the following May (1555) the newly organized company despatched Chancellor on a second voyage to the White Sea again with the “Edward Bonaventure” and a companion ship, the “Philip and Mary,” both freighted with English goods to be bartered for Russian furs and other commodities. Accompanying him were three factors, or agents, of the company, and he carried letters of amity from Mary to Ivan, written in Greek, Polish, and Italian. While this second voyage was essentially a commercial one, Chancellor was to continue his efforts to discover a Northeast passage, being instructed to “use all wayes and meanes possible to learne howe men may passe from Russia either by land or sea to Cathaia.” He was also to make diligent enquiry among mariners and other “travelled persons” for tidings of Willoughby’s party.
This expedition arrived at “Wardhouse” by midsummer, and Moscow was reached in November. As flattering courtesies as before were exchanged between the emperor and Chancellor, and the factors were freely accorded the privileges asked for. Chancellor remained in Moscow through the following winter and spring, and then prepared for his return voyage, Ivan having appointed an ambassador to go back with him personally to convey to the English court tokens of the emperor’s good will and readiness to enter into mutual bonds of friendship. Chancellor had made no further Northeastern discoveries, but the fate of Willoughby and his companions had been ascertained, and their two ships had been brought from the tragic Lapland haven to St. Nicholas and added to Chancellor’s fleet there.
The return voyage was begun from St. Nicholas in July (1556), the four ships—the “Edward Bonaventure,” the “Philip and Mary,” and the restored “Bona Esperanza” and “Bona Confidentia”—making a goodly show as they put to sea. On board of the “Bonaventure” with Chancellor was the ambassador, Osep Napea by name, with most of his suite, a brilliant company of “Russes” and numerous servants, the remainder of his train, Russian merchants among them, being passengers on the other ships. The ambassador was well supplied with handsome trappings with which to dazzle his hosts, and he carried letters “tenderly conceived” from Ivan to the English sovereign. All of the ships were heavy laden with Russian goods for the English trade, parts of the cargoes being taken out by the Russians; while on the “Bonaventure” were a quantity of presents from the emperor to Philip and Mary—costly furs, rich skins, and “four living sables with chains and collars.”
For a time the four ships kept gallant company. Then high winds and storms arose and they were separated not to come together again. The “Philip and Mary,” the “Bona Esperanza,” and the “Bona Confidentia,” were all driven on the coast of Norway into “Drenton” waters. The fated ships in which Willoughby and his associates perished, were both lost with their passengers and crews. The “Confidentia” was seen to “perish on a rock.” The “Philip and Mary,” finding a snug harbour, was saved to make her way back to England nearly a year later. The “Bonaventure” continued alone on the voyage buffeted by much foul weather. At length, after four long months at sea, she also met her fate. At the close of a bleak November day she was driven by “outrageous tempests” on the north coast of Scotland, and was wrecked off Pitsligo, in Aberdeen Bay. Chancellor bent all his energies to saving the ambassador. Taking him with seven of his “Russes” into the ships’ boat he made for the shore. But it was now night-time, dark and tempestuous, and all of the boat’s company were lost save the ambassador and a few of the sailors. So the brave Chancellor perished at the height of his fame and usefulness as a navigator.
The ambassador thus barely escaping a watery grave was compensated with a magnificent reception. He was provided with fine raiment of silk and velvet, and other furnishings in place of those lost in the wreck (which, by the way, was looted by “rude and ravenous” people of the neighbourhood), and a band of titled Englishmen escorted him from Scotland to London. His formal entry into the city was made on a Saturday, the last day of February. It was a great spectacle, the court and the Muscovy Company combining for to outshine Ivan’s receptions of Chancellor. Hakluyt describes it under the caption, “A discourse of the honourable receiving into England of the first ambassador from the Empire of Russia in the year of Christ 1556” (1556/7).