The sunne being south,[48] and the height thereof being [[50]]taken, it was found to be 70 degrees and 47 minutes; then in the night time wee cast out the lead, and found ground at 40 fadome, it being a bancke; the sunne being north-west [½ p. 7 P.M.], we cast out the lead againe and had ground at 64 fadome, and so wee went on east south-east till the 16 of August, the sunne being north-east [½ p. 1 A.M.], and there the line being out, we found no ground at 80 fadome; and after that we sailed east and east and by south, and in that time wee cast the lead often times out, and found ground at 60 and 70 fadome, either more or lesse, and so sailed 36 [144] miles, till the sunne was south.
Then we sailed east, and so continued till the 17 of August, the sunne being east [½ p. 4 A.M.] and cast out our lead, and found 60 fadome deepe, clay[49] ground; and then taking the height of the sunne, when it was south-west and by south, we found it to be 69 degrees and 54 minutes, and there we saw great store of ice all along the coast of Noua Zembla, and casting out the lead had 75 fadome soft[1] ground, and so sayled about 24 [96] miles.
After that we held diuers courses because of the ice, and sayled south-east and by east and south south-east for the space of 18 [72] miles, till the 18 of August, when the sunne was east, and then wee cast out the lead againe, and found 30 fadome soft[50] ground, and within two houres after that 25 fadome, red sand, with small shels;[51] three glasses[52] after that we had ground at 20 fadome, red sand with blacke shels,[53] as before; then we saw 2 islands, which they of Enckhuysen gaue the names of Prince Maurice and his brother,[54] which lay from us south-east 3 [12] miles, [[51]]being low land, and then we sailed 8 [32] miles, till the sunne was south. [¾ p. 10 A.M.]
Then we sailed east, and oftentimes casting out the lead we found 20, 19, 18, and 17 fadome deepe, good grounde [[52]]mixed with blacke shels,[55] and saw the Wey-gates (the sunne being west) [¾ p. 3 P.M.], which lay east north-east from vs about 5 [20] miles; and after that we sailed about 8 [32] miles.
Then we sailed vnder 70 degrees,[56] vntill we came to the Wey-gates, most part through broken ice; and when we got to Wey-gates, we cast out our lead, and for a long time found 13 and 14 fadome, soft[57] ground mixed with blacke shels;[58] not long after that wee cast out the lead and found 10 fadome deepe, the wind being north, and we forced to hold stifly aloofe,[59] in regard of the great quantity of ice, till about midnight; then we were forced to wind north-ward, because of certaine rocks that lay on the south side of Wey-gates, right before vs about a mile and a halfe [6 miles], hauing ten fadome deepe: then wee changed our course, and sailed west north-west for the space of 4 glasses,[60] after that we wound about againe east and east and by south, and so entred into Wey-gates, and as wee went in, we cast out the lead, and found 7 fadome deepe, little more or lesse, till the 19 of August; and then the sunne being south-east [½ p. 7 A.M.] we entered into the Wey-gates, in the road, the wind being north.
The right chanell betweene the Image Point[61] and the [[53]]Samuters land[62] was full of ice, so that it was not well[63] to be past through, and so we went into the road, which we called the Trayen Bay,[64] because we found store of trayen-oyle there: this is a good bay for the course of the ice,[65] and good almost for all windes, and we may saile so farre into it as we will at 4, 5, and 3 fadome, good anchor-ground: on the east side it is deepe[66] water.
The 20 of August, the height of the sunne being taken with the crosse-staffe,[67] wee found that it was eleuated aboue the horizon 69 degrees 21 minuts,[68] when it was south-west and by south, being at the highest, or before it began to descend.
The 21 of August we went on land within the Wey-gates[69] with foure and fiftie men, to see the scituation of the countrey, and being 2 [8] miles within the land, we found many vel-werck trayen, and such like wares,[70] and diuers footsteps of men and deere; whereby wee perceived that some men dwelt thereabouts, or else vsed to come thither.
And to assure vs the more thereof, wee might perceiue it by the great number of images, which we found there upon the Image or Beelthooke[71] (so called by us) in great aboundance, [[54]]whereof ten dayes after we were better informed by the Samuters[72] and the Russians, when we spake with them.
And when wee entered further[73] into the land, wee vsed all the meanes we could, to see if we could find any houses, or men, by whom wee might bee informed of the scituation of the sea[74] there abouts; whereof afterwards wee had better intelligence by the Samuters, that tolde vs, that there are certaine men dwelling on the Wey-gates,[75] and vpon Noua Zembla; but wee could neither finde men, houses, nor any other things; so that to have better information, we went with some of our men further south-east into the land, towards the sea-side;[76] and as we went, we found a path-way made with mens feete in the mosse or marsh-ground, about halfe knee deepe, for that going so deepe wee felt hard ground vnder our feete, which at the deepest was no higher than our shoes; and as wee went forward to the sea coast, wee were exceeding glad, thinking that wee had seene a passage open, where wee might get through, because we saw so little ice there: and in the euening entering into our ship againe, wee shewed them that newes. Meanetime our maister[77] had sent out a boat to see if the Tartarian Sea[78] was open, but it could not get into the sea because of the ice, yet they rowed to the Crosse-point,[79] and there let the boate lye, and went ouer the land to the [[55]]West Point,[80] and there perceiued that the ice in the Tartarian Sea lay full vpon the Russian coastes, and in the mouth of Wey-gates.