[169] Although this work is confined to the Russian Discoveries, yet as the N. E. passage is a subject of such interesting curiosity, it might seem an omission in not mentioning, that several English and Dutch vessels have passed through the Straits of Weygatz into the sea of Kara; they all met with great obstructions from the ice, and had much difficulty in getting through. See Histoire Gen. Des Voyages, tome XV. passim.
In 1696 Heemskirk and Barentz, after having sailed along the Western coast of Nova Zemla, doubled the North Eastern cape lying in latitude 77° 20, and got no lower along the Eastern coast than 76°, where they wintered.
See an account of this remarkable voyage in Girard Le Ver's Vraye Description De Trois Voyages De Mer, p. 13 to 45; and Hist. Gen. des Voy. tom. XV. p. 111 to 139.
No vessel of any nation has ever passed round that Cape, which extends to the North of the Piasida, and is laid down in the Russian charts in about 78° latitude. We have already seen that no Russian vessel has ever got from the Piasida to the Chatanga, or from the Chatanga to the Piasida; and yet some authors have positively asserted, that this promontory has been sailed round. In order therefore to elude the Russian accounts, which clearly assert the contrary, it is pretended, that Gmelin and Muller have purposely concealed some parts of the Russian journals, and have imposed upon the world by a misrepresentation of facts. But without entering into any dispute on this head, I can venture to affirm, that no sufficient proof has been as yet advanced in support of this assertion; and therefore until some positive information shall be produced, we cannot deny plain facts, or give the preference to hearsay evidence over circumstantial and well attested accounts.
Mr. Engel has a remarkable passage in his Essai sur une route par la Nord Est, which it may be proper to consider in this place, because he asserts in the most positive manner, that two Dutch vessels formerly passed three hundred leagues to the North East of Nova Zemla; from thence he infers that they must have doubled the above-mentioned Cape, which extends to the North of the Piasida, and have got at least as far East as the mouth of the Olenek. His words are L'Illustre Societé Royale, sous l'an 1675, rapporte ce voyage et dit, que peu d'années auparavant une Societé de merchands d'Amsterdam avoit fait une tentative pour chercher le passage du Nord Est, et équippa deux vaisseaux les quels etant passé au septante neuf ou huitantieme degrè de latitude, avoient poussè selon Wood, jusqu' à trois cent lieues à l'Est de la Nouvelle Zemble, &c. &c. Upon this fact he founds his proof that the navigation from Archangel to the Lena has been performed. Par consequent cette partie de la route a èté faite. He rests the truth of this account on the authority of the Philosophical Transactions, and of Captain Wood, who sailed upon a voyage for the discovery of the North East passage in 1676. The latter, in the relation of his voyage, enumerates several arguments which induced him to believe the practicability of the North East passage.—"The seventh argument," he says, "was another narration, printed in the Transactions, of two ships of late that had attempted the passage, sailed 300 leagues to the Eastward of Nova Zemla, and had after prosecuted the voyage, had there not a difference arose betwixt the undertakers and the East-India company." We here find that Captain Wood refers to the Philosophical Transactions for his authority. The narration printed in the Transactions, and which is alluded to by both Captain Wood and Mr. Engel, is to be found in Vol. IX. of the Philosophical Transactions, p. 209, for December, 1674. It consists of a very curious "Narrative of some observations made upon several voyages, undertaken to find a way for sailing about the North to the East-Indies; together with instructions given by the Dutch East-India Company for the discovery of the famous land of Jesso near Japan." These instructions were, in 1643, given to Martin Geritses Vries, captain of the ship Castricum, "who set out to discover the unknown Eastern coast of Tartary, the kingdom of Catay, and the West coast of America, together with the isles situate to the East of Japan, cried up for their riches of gold and silver." These instructions contain no relation of two Dutch vessels, who passed 300 leagues East of Nova Zemla. Mention is made of two Dutch vessels, "who were sent out in the year 1639, under the command of Captain Kwast, to discover the East coast of the Great Tartary, especially the famous gold and silver islands; though, by reason of several unfortunate accidents, they both returned re infectà." Short mention is afterwards made of Captain Kwast's journal, together with the writings of the merchants who were with him, as fallows: "That in the South Sea, at the 37-1/2 degrees Northern latitude, and about 400 Spanish, or 343 Dutch miles, that is, 28 degrees longitude East of Japan, there lay a very great and high island, inhabited by a white, handsome, kind and civilized people, exceedingly opulent in gold and silver, &c. &c."
From these extracts it appears, that, in the short account of the journals of the two Dutch vessels, no longitude is mentioned to the East of Nova Zemla; but the discoveries of Kwast were made in the South sea, to which place he, as well as Captain Vries afterwards, must have sailed round the Cape of Good Hope. The author of the narrative concludes, indeed, that the N. E. passage is practicable, in the following words: "to promote this passage out of the East-Indies to the North into Europe, it were necessary to sail from the East-Indies to the Westward of Japan, all along Corea, to see how the sea-coasts trend to the North of the said Corea, and with what conveniency ships might sail as far as Nova Zemla, and to the North of the same. Where our author saith, that undoubtedly it would be found, that having passed the North corner of Nova Zemla, or, through Weygatz, the North end of Yelmer land, one might go on South-Eastward, and make a successful voyage." But mere conjectures cannot be admitted as evidence. As we can find no other information relative to the fact mentioned by Captain Wood and Mr. Engel, (namely, that two Dutch vessels have passed 300 leagues to the East of Nova Zemla) that we have no reason to credit mere assertions without proof: we may therefore advance as a fact, that hitherto we have no authentic account, that any vessel has ever passed the cape to the East of Nova Zemla, which lies North of the river Piasida. See Relation of Wood's Voyage, &c. in the Account of several late Voyages and Discoveries to the South and North, &c. London, 1694, p. 148. See also Engel, Mem. et Obs. Geog. p. 231 to 234.
I should not have swelled my book with this extract, if the English translation of Mr. Muller's work was not extremely erroneous in some material passages. S. R. G. III. p. 8-20.
[170] Mr. Muller calls it Kolyma.
[171] In order thoroughly to understand this narrative, it is necessary to inform the reader, that the voyage made by Deshneff was entirely forgotten, until the year 1736, when Mr. Muller found, in the archives of Yakutsk, the original accounts of the Russian navigations in the Frozen Ocean.
These papers were extracted, under his inspection, at Yakutsk, and sent to Petersburg; where they are now preserved in the library belonging to the Imperial Academy of Sciences: they consist of several folio volumes. The circumstances relating to Deshneff are contained in the second volume. Soliverstoff and Stadukin, having laid claim to the discovery of the country on the mouth of the Anadyr, had asserted, in consequence of this claim, that they had arrived there by sea, after having doubled Tschukotskoi Noss. Deshneff, in answer, sent several memorials, petitions, and complaints, against Stadukin and Soliverstoff, to the commander of Yakutsk, in which he sets forth, that he had the sole right to that discovery, and refutes the arguments advanced by the others. From these memorials Mr. Muller has extracted his account of Deshneff's voyage. When I was at Petersburg I had an opportunity of seeing these papers: and as they are written in the Russian language, I prevailed upon my ingenious friend Mr. Pallas to inspect the part which relates to Deshneff. Accordingly Mr. Pallas, with his usual readiness to oblige, not only compared the memorials with Mr. Muller's account, but even took the trouble to make some extracts in the most material passages: these extracts are here subjoined; because they will not only serve to confirm the exactness of Mr. Muller; but also because they tend to throw some light on several obscure passages. In one of Deshneff's memorials he says, "To go from the river Kovyma to the Anadyr, a great promontory must be doubled, which stretches very far into the sea: it is not that promontory which lies next to the river Tschukotskia. Stadukin never arrived at this great promontory: near it are two islands, whose inhabitants make holes in their under-lips, and insert therein pieces of the sea-horse tush, worked into the form of teeth. This promontory stretches between North and North East: It is known on the Russian side by the little river Stanovie, which flows into the sea, near the spot where the Tschutski have erected a heap of whale-bones like a tower. The coast from the promontory turns round towards the Anadyr, and it is possible to sail with a good wind from the point to that river in three days and nights, and no more: and it will take up no more time to go by land to the same river, because it discharges itself into a bay." In another memorial Deshneff says, "that he was ordered to go by sea from the Indigirka to the Kovyma; and from thence with his crew to the Anadyr, which was then newly discovered. That the first time he sailed from the Kovyma, he was forced by the ice to return to that river; but that next year he again sailed from thence by sea, and after great danger, misfortunes, and with the loss of part of his shipping, arrived at last at the mouth of the Anadyr. Stadukin having in vain attempted to go by sea, afterwards ventured to pass over the chain of mountains then unknown; and reached by that means the Anadyr. Soliverstoff and his party, who quarrelled with Deshneff, went to the same place from the Kovyma by land; and the tribute was afterwards sent to the last mentioned river across the mountains, which were very dangerous to pass amidst the tribes of Koriacs and Yukagirs, who had been lately reduced by the Russians."