As it had been agreed that in case of a separation Vardo should be the rendezvous, Willoughby, with the Esperanza and the Confidentia, set about finding his way thither. The gale abating on August 4, he sailed north-east by north, but soon found that he was quite out of his reckoning and that his charts were incorrect. With frequent changes of direction owing to varying winds, but all the time making headway eastwards, he sailed on until August 14, when land was discovered in latitude 72°. His course cannot with any certainty be laid down; on some days the distance traversed is not stated in the log, the eccentricities of the compass in northern latitudes render untrustworthy the bearings given, there was then no accurate method of calculating longitude, while such factors as currents and leeway caused serious errors in an attempt to estimate the distance by dead reckoning. The one certain datum is the fact that the land discovered lay in 72°. Latitude was then usually ascertainable within a degree of correctitude; William Borough’s chart of these regions, drawn up a few years later, contains no error greater than ¾°, and only one in any way approaching that. Therefore it is evident that Willoughby, on August 14, 1553, discovered Novaia Zemlia, probably in the neighbourhood of Moller Bay.[[293]] Between it and Greenland there is no other land in latitude 72°. Willoughby’s error in longitude may be judged from the fact that he thought it to be 480 miles east by north from the island of Senjen on the coast of Norway; actually it is about 700 miles. The prospect was desolate in the extreme: ‘Early in the morning we descried land,’ he says, ‘which land we bare with all, hoising out our boat to discover what land it might be: but the boat could not come to land, the water was so shoal, where was very much ice also, but there was no similitude of habitation.... Then we plyed to the northward the 15, 16 and 17 day.’ There was no occasion here for the use of the king’s friendly letters to princes and potentates, but the explorers did not lose heart. The last quoted phrase seems to imply that Willoughby took this land to be a promontory of the continent and that he was seeking to find the passage round it to the northward, having by this time given up the idea of meeting Chancellor at Vardo. However, after three days’ ‘plying’ or beating to windward, the Confidentia was found to be leaking, and, putting about, they ran 70 leagues before the wind to the south-south-east to seek a harbour for her repair.
From hence onwards the actual course is altogether conjectural; the daily distances are seldom given, and no more latitudes are mentioned. But the general direction was now westwards, and it is evident that the quest for the passage had been given up for that year. The object was now to return to some safe wintering place on the coast of Norway. On August 23 land was sighted on a west-south-westerly course, low-lying and deserted, and running west-south-west and east-north-east. This was probably the coast to the west of Cape Ruskoi and the Petchora River. After coasting westwards for some distance they drew off into the sea, and seem next to have sailed south-westwards into Cheska Gulf. Land was again seen on the 28th, barren as before and running north-eastwards to a point, after which it turned to the west. This can only be identified with Kaninska Island, the eastern arm of the entrance to the White Sea. The explorers landed in a neighbouring bay and saw signs of human habitation, although no one appeared. On September 4 they lost touch with the coast by reason of contrary winds, but regained it on the 8th. It was probably during this interval that the entrance to the White Sea, where Chancellor had already found safety, was passed and missed. From September 8 to the 17th they coasted north-westwards along the dreary shore of Lapland, and finally, turning back for a short distance, they entered on the 18th a haven known as the River Arzina, which they had noted a day or two before. It was some six miles long by one and a half wide, and was full of seals and large fish, while on the land were seen bears, deer, foxes, and other beasts, but no sign of man. After spending a week in this place they decided to winter there as the weather had become too bad to admit of further exploration. Groups of men were sent out in three directions to search for inhabitants, but all alike returned ‘without finding of people or any similitude of habitation’. With these words closes the log of Sir Hugh Willoughby, written by his own hand, and found a year later by Russian fishermen in the cabin of the Bona Esperanza.
The details of the sufferings and death of the sixty-three men who formed the crews of the Esperanza and the Confidentia are unrecorded: not one of them survived the long Arctic winter. The only other document besides the log of which we have any record was a will made in January 1554 by Gabriel Willoughby, from which it was evident that Sir Hugh and most of his crew were still alive in that month. The will came into the possession of Samuel Purchas, by whom it was kept as a relic, but it has long since disappeared. They certainly did not die of starvation, for, when the ships were visited in 1555 by agents of the Company, a considerable quantity of provisions was recovered. Henry Lane, writing from Russia many years afterwards, ascribed their fate to ‘want of experience to have made caves and stoves’. At that we must leave it. A wildly imaginative description by Giovanni Michiel, the Venetian agent in London, forwarded to his Government in 1555, says: ‘The mariners now returned from the second voyage narrate strange things about the mode in which they (i.e. Willoughby and his men) were frozen, having found some of them seated in the act of writing, pen still in hand, and the paper before them; others at table, platter in hand, and spoon in mouth; others opening a locker, and others in various postures, like statues, as if they had been adjusted and placed in those attitudes. They say that some dogs on board the ships displayed the same phenomena.’ Other statements in the same letter are demonstrably false, and it need only be said that the above account is extremely unlikely to be true.
Chancellor, in the Edward Bonaventure, had better fortune. After losing sight of Willoughby in the storm of August 2, he steered for Vardo as had been pre-arranged. Reaching that place without difficulty he waited a week for the other two ships and then decided to proceed on the voyage without them. The pluck and loyalty of Chancellor and his crew are altogether admirable. If they had not exhibited those qualities in the highest degree the whole project would have ended in complete failure, and a disastrous check would have been sustained by the exponents of the new movement of maritime expansion just when, for the first time, there was some sign of national interest aroused. After the separation from the rest of the fleet Chancellor’s company became, according to Clement Adams, ‘very pensive, heavy and sorrowful’, and an incident which took place at Vardo was not calculated to raise their spirits. They encountered there certain Scotsmen who, hearing of their intention to seek the North-East Passage, did their best to dissuade them, magnifying the dangers of the northern seas and omitting no arguments to divert them from their purpose. The Scotsmen, if they had been resident for any length of time at Vardo, must have spoken with good reason, and what they said was believed by the English to be inspired by pure good will and without envious intent. Chancellor stood firm, however, and ‘holding nothing so ignominious and reproachful as inconstancy and levity of mind, and persuading himself that a man of valour could not commit a more dishonourable part than, for fear of danger, to avoid and shun great attempts, he was nothing at all changed or discouraged with the speeches and words of the Scots, remaining stedfast and immutable in his first resolution: determining either to bring that to pass which was first intended, or else to die the death’.
His men rose to his own height of resolution, and the most hearty good will prevailed between captain and crew. Accordingly, about the middle of August they set forward once more, arriving at length at the entrance of the White Sea. It does not appear whether or not he believed this to be the mouth of the passage. In any case, ignorant as he was of the shape and extent of the northern coast of Asia, it was his duty to explore it, especially as it ran southwards at first and then curved to the east in the Bay of Mezen. Having penetrated far into this great gulf the explorers sighted a boat full of fishermen, the first men seen since leaving Vardo. They fled in terror at the sight of the strange English ship, of a size and loftiness hitherto undreamed of by their simple minds. Chancellor manned his boat and overtook them, finding them ‘in great fear as men half dead’. He reassured them by his gentleness and courtesy, the report of which was spread abroad and caused ‘the barbarous Russes’ to flock round the ship with offers of food and welcome. At this point the English learned, somewhat to their surprise, that they had discovered the dominions of the Czar. There is no hint in Sebastian Cabot’s instructions of any such result being contemplated. A marginal note to a later account of Russian adventures in Hakluyt says that they arrived first at the village of Newnox (Nenoksa), twenty-five miles west of St. Nicholas and somewhat further from St. Michael (Archangel).[[294]]
News of their coming was at once sent to the Czar Ivan, not yet called the Terrible, whose authority was so respected, even in those remote regions, that the natives dared not buy the Englishmen’s goods without his permission. In the meantime Chancellor, who at once realized the commercial possibilities of his discovery, was eager to set out for Moscow to deliver in person to the Czar his king’s letters of recommendation. The local authorities were still awaiting instructions, pending the arrival of which they made excuses to defer the journey. At length they yielded on Chancellor’s threat to depart forthwith by the way he had come. They provided him with sledges and post-horses with which he and a few companions set forward over the snow-covered plains to the south. On the way he encountered the messenger returning from the Czar with a letter couched in cordial terms and injunctions to the inhabitants to defray all the expenses of the journey. Such was the weight of Ivan’s word that the Russians quarrelled and fought for the honour of supplying horses to the travellers.
Twelve days after arriving at Moscow Chancellor was summoned before the Czar. He was conducted through an outer room, wherein sat a hundred courtiers in cloth of gold, into the presence chamber filled with a hundred and fifty more. Ivan sat on a lofty throne, with crown and sceptre and a most regal countenance. Nothing abashed, the sailor strode up to him and saluted after the English fashion, and then presented the letters of Edward VI. The emperor, having read the letters, conversed a little with him and commanded him and his companions to dinner. The meal was served in high state, with impressive ceremonies and massive vessels of gold; but the English were quick to detect barbarian squalor beneath barbaric display. They were greatly impressed, however, by the hardiness of the people, and by the iron discipline which prevailed throughout the land; also by the military power of the Czar, concerning which they gave credit to exaggerated reports.
Chancellor made good use of his opportunities. His account of Russia and that of Clement Adams (based entirely on reports of this first voyage) are full of useful and generally correct information on the cities, government, laws, religion, and products of the country, to an extent that is wonderful when one considers that at the outset he was utterly ignorant of its language and almost of its very existence. In his bearing toward the Czar and his ministers he remembered always that he was the representative of England, and that his conduct would mainly determine the attitude which they would take up towards his country. His combined modesty and dignity caused him to be favourably treated from the first, and secured valuable privileges for the Company.
After a stay in Moscow of unknown duration, Chancellor and his comrades returned to the Bay of St. Nicholas, where his ship had been laid up for the winter. He was the bearer of a letter from Ivan to the English sovereign, dated February 1554, in which a cordial invitation was extended to Englishmen who should wish to trade with Russia. The Czar promised them his protection and complete freedom to buy and sell in any part of his dominions. As soon as navigation became possible the Edward Bonaventure set sail for England, arriving in the summer of 1554, after having been robbed on the way by Flemish pirates.
Chancellor’s return with tidings of a promising new outlet for English trade created a great stir in commercial circles. The quest of the North-East Passage was for the moment forgotten, and a second expedition to the White Sea was prepared for 1555. In February of that year the Company obtained a fresh charter of incorporation from Philip and Mary, in supersession of that granted by Edward VI. Sebastian Cabot, as having been ‘the chiefest setter forth of this journey or voyage’, was confirmed in the office of Governor. Four consuls and twenty-four assistants to the Governor were to be elected yearly by the shareholders, meeting in London or elsewhere. The first list of appointments to these offices was stated in the charter. Among the four consuls were Anthony Hussey, Governor of the Low Countries Merchant Adventurers, and Sir George Barnes, whom we have already seen as an adventurer in the African voyages. Sir John Gresham was one of the assistants, as were also Sir Andrew Judde, Miles Mordeyne, and others who took an active part in the Guinea trade. The Governor, consuls, and assistants were to have full administrative powers over the merchants of the Company. It is interesting to note how naturally the English tradition of representative government took its place in the affairs of these mercantile societies. The constitutions of the old Merchant Adventurers, of the Staplers, and of the various provincial merchant guilds, were very similar to the one now under consideration. The habits of thought which they kept alive were undoubtedly a factor in preventing England from becoming an absolute monarchy after the example of her Continental neighbours. The charter proceeded to grant power to the Company to acquire real estate in England, to plead in the courts, to make statutes for its own governance, to impose penalties for the enforcement of the same, to proceed with the discovery of new lands and to conquer them in the name of the English Crown, and finally, to enjoy a monopoly of the newly instituted trade with Russia, in which all other persons were forbidden to engage.