In 1611, three years after Hudson’s visit to Novaya Zemlya, Josiah Logan went on a voyage to the Pechora, and on the 27th of August of that year we find the following entry in his journal, which, like that of Hudson, is published by Purchas:[81]—“We came to an iland called Mezyou Sharry, being sixtie versts to the eastwards of Suatinose, and it is about ten versts in length and two versts broad. At the east end thereof Oliver Brunell was carried into harbour by a Russe, where he was land-locked, hauing the iland on the one side and the mayne on the other.” It is here manifest that Logan’s “Mezyou Sharry” Island is the Mezhdusharsky Ostrov, or “the island between the two straits”, of the Russians.[82]
From these several statements of three seamen, who visited Kostin Shar at different periods between the years 1594 and 1611, the only facts to be elicited are, that, at some time previous to the former date, this strait was first discovered by some well-known individual, named Oliver Brunel, who was there exposed to some danger or difficulty, [[xcvii]]from which he was rescued by the crew of a Russian vessel. That he was, however, subsequently lost at the mouth of the river Pechora is made known to us in the work of Hessel Gerard already referred to.[83]
As this work of Gerard is but little known, the commencement of the author’s Preface (Prolegomena) shall be reprinted here, both on account of its clearing up the history of Oliver Brunel, and also because it shows the important bearing which his adventure had on the subsequent voyages of the Dutch, which form the subject of the following pages.
“Lucri et utilitatis spes animos hominum nunquam non excitavit ad peregrinas regiones nationesque lustrandas. Ita pretiosæ illæ, nobis a mercatoribus Russis allatæ pelles, mercatores nostrates inflammarunt acri quadam cupidine incognitas nobis ipsorum terras, si fieri posset, peragrandi. Profuit ipsis quadam tenus hac in parte iter quoddam à Russis conscriptum, Moscovia Colmogroviam, atque inde Petzoram (ubi incolæ anno Christi 1518 Christianam fidem amplexi sunt) hinc porro ad fluvium Obi, pauloque ulterius ducens. Quod quidem plurima falsa veris admiscet, puta de Slatibaba anu illa (ut fertur) aurea, eiusque filijs, necnon monstruosis illis trans ipsum Obi hominibus.[84] Transtulit verò descriptionem hanc Russicam, eamque suis de regionibus Muscovitarum libris inseruit Sigismundus ab Herberstein, Imperatoris Maximiliani orator. Ediditque posteà tabulam Russiæ Antonius quidam Wiedus, adjutus ab Iohanne à Latski, Principe quondam Russo, et ob tumultus post obitum Magni Ducis Iohannis Basilij in Russia excitatos, in Poloniam profugo. Quæ tabula I. cuidam Copero, Senatori Gedanensi, dicata, Russicisque et Latinis descriptionibus aucta, in lucem prodiit apud Wildam anno Christi 1555.[85] Aliam quoque Russiæ tabulam ediderunt post modum [[xcviii]]Angli, qui in tractu illo negotiati fuerunt. Atque hæ quidam tabulæ et qualescumque descriptiones, quæque præterea de regionibus hisce comperta sunt, elicuerunt Oliverium quendam Bunellum, domo Bruxella, uti conscenso navigio Euchusano, animum induxerit eò sese conferre. Vbi aliquandiu vagatus, et pellium pretiosarum, vitri Russici, crystallique montani, ut vocant, adfatim nactus, omnium opum suarum scaphæ commissarum in undis fluvij Petzoræ triste fecit naufragium. Quæ tum Anglorum, tum hujus Bunelli, qui et Costinsarcam Novæ Zemlæ lustraverat, navigationes, cum et Batavis nostris, opum Chinensium Cathaicarumque odore allectis, animum accendissent, nobiles et prepotentes Provinciarum Fœderatarum Ordines, duas naves, ductore Iohanne Hugonis à Linschot, versus fretum quod vulgò Weygats, totidemque ductore Guilielmo Bernardi, suasu D. Petri Plancij, recto supra Novam Zemblam cursu sententionem versus ituras, destinarunt.”
Oliver Brunel, or “Bunel”, was therefore no Englishman, but a native of Brussels; and if the particulars thus recorded of him and of the motives of his enterprise be correctly stated, he would scarcely seem to be the Alferius of Balak’s letter to Mercator. Still, the point cannot be looked on as absolutely decided. One further remark is necessary with respect to the spelling of his name. On the one hand, it will be seen that, according to De Veer and Logan, it is “Brunel” or “Brunell”, while Hudson makes it to be “Brownell”, which latter may, however, be regarded as merely a broad pronunciation of the word, or perhaps an attempt to give it a vernacular and significant form;—a process with respect to proper names not unusual among seamen of all nations. On the other hand, Gerard writes [[xcix]]“Bunel”. But this form cannot be allowed to stand in opposition to the conjoint authority of the three seamen, all writing separately and without concert; and we may quite reasonably conjecture the r to have been left out by Gerard, through some clerical or typographical error.
Gerard’s work must have come to the knowledge of Purchas soon after its publication; for, in the year 1625, it is referred to by the latter[86] as his authority for the following statement:—“The Dutch themselues[87] write that after the English Russian trade, one Oliuer Bunell, moued with hope of gaine, went from Enckhuysen to Pechora, where he lost all by shipwracke, hauing discouered Costinsarca in Noua Zemla. These nauigations of the English, and that of Bunell, and the hopes of China and Cathay, caused the States Generall to send forth two shippes, vnder the command of Hugo Linschoten, to the Streights of Wey-gates, and two others, vnder William Bernards, by the perswasion of P. Plancius, to goe right northwards from Noua Zemla.”
Nearly a century later, Witsen, in his oft-cited work,[88] writes as follows:—“Het zijn veele jaren geleden, en lange voor Willem Barents-zoons reis, dat eenen Olivier Bunel, met een scheepje van Enkhuizen uitgevaren, deze rivier [Petsora] heeft bezocht, daer hy veel pelterye, Rusch glas, en bergkristal vergaderd hadde; doch is aldaer komen te blyven.” Witsen does not cite any authority for this statement; [[c]]but it bears internal evidence of having been taken from Gerard, whose work we know he had before him. That both he and Purchas should have written the name “Bunel”, and not “Brunel”, is perfectly natural, and adds nothing to the weight of evidence in favour of the former spelling.
The next writer to be mentioned is Johann Reinhold Forster, who, in his Voyages and Discoveries in the North,[89] after referring to De Veer’s statement respecting Oliver Brunel,—whom, however, he styles “Bennel”, on what authority it is impossible to say—adds in a note:—“It is manifest that the navigators mentioned here, who had been in Nova Zembla previous to Barentz’s arrival there, were Englishmen; for the name Oliver Bennel is entirely English, and the name of the inlet, which Barentz calls Constint Sarch, can hardly have been any other than Constant Search; but in which of the known voyages of the English into these parts this place was thus named, or whether Oliver Bennel made a voyage for the sole purpose of making discoveries, or was cast away here in his way to other regions, cannot easily be determined, for want of proper information on the subject.”
The absurdity of Forster’s derivation of the name Kostin Shar is manifest from the explanation of it given in page 30 (note 4) of the present work. And as to the allegation that “the name Oliver Bennel is entirely English”, it could only have been made by a foreigner. On the contrary, it may be asserted that such a name as “Bennel” is altogether un-English; and were it not for the cosmopolitan character of our English surnames, it might—had it really been that of the individual in question—in itself be fairly taken as evidence that he was not an Englishman. With much more reason might we, at the present day, claim “Brunel” as an English name. Probably Forster had in [[ci]]his mind the “entirely English” name of Stephen Bennet, the well-known walrus-hunter on Bear (Cherie) Island.
But the confusion as to Oliver Brunel does not rest here. Sir John Barrow, in his work already cited,[90] says:—“The Dutch themselves admit, that an Englishman of the name of Brunell or Brownell, ‘moved with the hope of gain, went from Enkhuysen to Pechora’, where he lost all by shipwreck, after he had been on the coast of Nova Zembla, and given the name of Costin-sarca (qu. Coasting-search ?) to a bay situated in about 71½°.” And in another place,[91] the same writer speaks of Oliver Brunel as “an Englishman, of whom a vague mention only is made by the Dutch.”