Thus have I given an exact account, to the best of my knowledge, of all our proceedings, without deviating the least from the truth, which whoever is pleas’d to read this relation, I hope, will give credit to, and not think it too tedious. Written on board his majesty’s ship the Resolution, at Spithead, the 2nd of February 1698/9.
CHARLES MAY
EDWARD PELLHAM’S
VOYAGE TO GREENLAND
This account of an involuntary wintering in the Arctic comes from a pamphlet entitled God’s Power and Providence: Shewed, In the Miraculous Preservation and Deliverance of eight Englishmen, left by mischance in Green-land Anno 1630, nine moneths and twelve dayes. With a true Relation of all their miseries, their shifts and hardship they were put to, their food, &c., such as neither Heathen nor Christian men ever before endured. With a Description of the chiefe Places and Rarities of that barren and cold countrey. Faithfully reported by Edward Pellham, one of the eight men aforesaid. As also with a Map of Green-land.
They that goe downe into the Sea in ships; that doe businesse in great waters:
These see the workes of the Lord, and his wonders in the deepe.
Psal. 107. 23, 24.
London. Printed by R. Y. for John Partridge, and are to be sold at the Signe of the Sunne in Pauls Church-yard. 1631.
Pellham’s narrative has been reprinted several times, nearly always in a mangled condition, but it has not appeared since 1855, when it was edited by the Hakluyt Society. The text I have used is that of the exceedingly scarce 1631 edition.
Despite the “Greenland” of the title, the place in which Pellham spent his long winter was Spitsbergen: it appears that the names were often confused or held to be synonymous in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
TO THE right Worshipfull Sir John Merick Knight, Governour of the worshipfull Company of Muscovie Merchants; Sir Hugh Hamersly Knight, and Alderman of the Citie of London: And to the Worshipfull, Mr. Alderman Freeman, Captaine William Goodler; And to all the rest of the Worshipfull Assistants and Adventurers in the said famous Company. Edward Pellham dedicateth both this and his future Labours.
Right Worshipfull and most famous Merchants:
The hard adventure my poore selfe and fellowes underwent in your Worships service, is a great deale pleasanter for others to reade, than it was for us to endure. However hard, wee have now endured it; and if ever after-ages shall speake of it, (as the world still doth of the Dutch-mens hard Winter in Nova Zembla:) thus much of the Voyage shall redound to your honours, that it was done by your Servants. This may also returne to our Countreys good; that if the first inhabiting of a Country by a Princes Subjects (which is the King of Spaine’s best title to his Indyes) doth take possession of it for their Soveraigne: Then is Green-land by a second right taken livery and Seisin of, for his Majesties use; his Subjects being the first that ever did (and I believe the last that ever will) inhabite there. Many a rich returne may your Worships in generall, and the brave Adventurers in particular receive from this and all other places: and may your Servants be ever hereafter, warned to take heede by our harmes. God send your Worships long life, and much honour, and sufficient wealth, to maintaine both. This is the hearty prayer of your Worships poor servant
EDWARD PELLHAM.
To the Reader.
Courteous Reader: That God may have the only glory of this our deliverance, give mee leave to looke backe into that voyage, which the Dutch-men made into Nova Zembla, in the yeare 1596. In which place, they having beene (like our selves) overtaken with the Winter, were there forced to stay it out as we were. Which being an Action so famous all the world over, encouraged mee both to publish this of ours, as also now to draw out some comparisons with them: that so our deliverance, and Gods glory may appeare both the more gracious and the greater.
This Nova Zembla stands in the Degree 76. North latitude: our wintering place is in 77. Degrees and 40. minutes, that is, almost two Degrees neerer the North Pole than they were; and so much therefore the colder. The Dutch were furnished with all things necessary both for life and health; had no want of any thing: Bread, Beere, and Wine, they had good, and good store. Victuals they had Gods plenty; and Apparell both for present clothing, and for shift too: and all this they brought with them in their Ship. We (God knowes) wanted all these. Bread, Beere, and Wine we had none. As for meate, our greatest and chiefest feeding was the Whale Frittars, and those mouldie too; the loathsomest meate in the world. For our Venison, ’twas hard to finde, but a great deale harder to get: and for our third sort of provision the Beares; ’twas a measuring cast which should be eaten first, Wee or the Beares, when wee first saw one another: and we perceived by them, that they had as good hopes to devoure us, as wee to kill them. The Dutch kill’d Beares, ’tis true; but it was for their skinnes, not for their flesh. The Dutch had a Surgeon in their companie; wee none but the great Physician to take care and cure of us. They had the benefite of Bathing and Purging: we of neither. They had their Ship at hand to be-friend them; wee had here perished, had not other Ships fetcht us off. They had Card and Compasse, wee no direction.
If the Dutch complained therefore of the extremity of the cold, (as well they might) and that when in building their house, they (as Carpenters use to doe) put the iron nayles into their mouthes, they there froze, and stuck so fast, that they brought off the skinne and forced blood: how cold, thinke you, were we, that we faine to maintaine two fires, to keepe our very mortar from freezing.
The Dutch complain’d, that their walls were frozen two inches thicke on the inside for all their fire: and if ours were not so, ’twas our paines and industry at first in building. The Dutch-mens clothes froze upon their backes, and their shooes were like homes upon their feete: but that was their owne ignorance, for they had Sea-coles enough with them, if they had knowne how to use them. If their drinke and Sacke were so hard frozen into lumps of yce, that they were faine to cut it out; how much harder was it for us, that were forced to make hot irons our best toasts to warme the snow withall, for our morning’s draughts? They used heated stones and billets to their feete and bodies, to warme them: which, though an hard shift, yet was it better than we had any.
Lay now, all these together, the distance of place, wee being many miles more into the cold than they: the want both of meate and clothes; and that the house wee lived in, wee had but three dayes respite to build for nine months to come; and then may the world see, that the Dutch had the better provisions, and wee the abler bodies. If therefore the Dutch-mens deliverance were worthily accounted a wonder, ours can amount to little lesse than a miracle. The greater glory therefore our deliverance, the greater must be Gods glory. And that’s the Authors purpose in publishing of it. God keepe the Readers from the like dangers. So prays he that endured what he here writes of
Edw. Pellham.
The names of the Men thus staying in GREEN-LAND for nine moneths and twelve dayes.
William Fakely, Gunner. Edward Pellham, Gunners mate, the Author of this Relation. John Wise, and Robert Good-fellow, Sea-men. Thomas Ayers, Whale-cutter. Henry Bett, Cooper. John Dawes, and Richard Kellet, Land-men.
GODS POWER AND PROVIDENCE IN THE PRESERVATION OF EIGHT MEN IN GREENLAND, NINE MONETHS AND TWELVE DAYES
But wee had the sentence of death in our selves, that wee should not trust in our selves, but in God which raiseth the dead.
Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom wee trust that hee will yet deliver us.
2 Cor. I. ver. 9, 10.
GREENLAND is a countrey very farre Northward, situated in 77. degrees, and 40. minutes, that is, within 12. degrees and 20. minutes of the very North Pole it selfe. The Land is wonderfull mountainous; the Mountaines all the year long full of yce and snow: the Plaines in part bare in Summer time. There growes neither tree nor hearbe in it, except Scurvey-grasse and Sorrell. The Sea is as barren as the Land, affording no fish but Whales, Sea-horses, Seales, & another small fish. And hither there is a yearely Fleet of English sent. Wee e
ight men therefore being employed in the service of the Right Worshipfull Company of Muscovie Merchants, in the good ship called the Salutation of London, were bound for this Greenland aforesaid, to make a voyage upon Whales or Sea-horse, for the advantage of the Merchants, and for the good of the Common-wealth. Wee set sayle from London the first day of May, 1630, and having a faire gale, wee quickly left the fertile bankes of Englands pleasant shoares behind us. After which, setting our comely sayles to this supposed prosperous gale, and ranging through the boysterous billowes of the rugged Seas, by the helpe and gracious assistance of Almighty God, we safely arrived at our desired Port, in Greenland, the eleventh of June following. Whereupon having moored our ships, and carryed our caske ashoare, wee, with all expedition, fell to the fitting up of our Shallops, with all things necessarie for our intended voyage. Wee were in companie three Ships; all which were then appointed by the order of our Captaine, Captaine William Goodler, to stay at the Foreland, untill the fifteenth of July; with resolution, that if we could not by that time make a voyage according to our expectation, then, to send one ship to the Eastward, unto a fishing place some fourscore leagues from thence; whither at the latter end of the yeare, the Whales use more frequently to resort. A second of the three ships was designed for Green-Harbour, (a place some fifteen leagues distant to the Southward) there to trie her skill and fortune, if it were possible there to make a voyage. The third ship (which was the same wherein wee were) was appointed to stay at the Fore-land, untill the twentieth of August. But the Captaine having made a great voyage at Bell Sownd, dispatches a Shallop towards our ship, with a command unto us to come to him at Bell Sownd aforesaid: his purpose being, to have us take in some of his Trane Oyle, as also by joyning our forces together, to make the Fleete so much the stronger for the defence of the Merchants goods homeward bound, the Dunkirkers being very strong and rife at sea in those dayes. Upon the eighth day of August (thereupon) leaving the Foreland, we directed our course to the Southward, towards Green-Harbour, there to take in twenty of our men, which had out of our ships company beene sent into the lesser ship, for the furtherance of her voyage.
But the winde being now contrary, our ship could no way lye our course. The fifteenth day, being calme and cleare, and our ship now in the Offing, some four leagues from Blacke-Point, and about five from the Maydens pappes (which is a place famous, both for very good, and for great store of Venison,) our Master sent us eight men here named, altogether in a shallop for the hunting and killing of some Venison, for the ships provision. Wee thus leaving the ship, and having taken a brace of dogs along with us, and furnisht our selves with a snap-hance, two lances, and a tinder-box; wee directed our course towards the shoare, where in foure houres we arrived, the weather being at that time faire and cleare, and every way seasonable for the performance of our present intentions. That day we laid fourteene tall and nimble Deere along; and being very weary and thoroughly tyred, first with rowing, and now with hunting, wee fell to eate such victuals as we had brought along, agreeing to take our rest for that night, and the next day to make an end of our hunting, and so fairely to returne to our ship againe. But the next day, as it pleased God, the weather falling out something thicke, and much yce in the Offing betwixt the shoare and the ship (by reason of a Southerly winde driving alongst the coast) our ship was forced so farre to stand off into the Sea, to be cleare of the yce, that we had quite lost the sight of her: neither could we assure our selves, whether she were inclosed in the drift yce, or not: and the weather still growing thicker and thicker, we thought it our best course to hunt alongst the shoare, and so to goe for Greene-harbour there to stay aboard the ship with the rest of our men, untill our own ship should come into the Port.
Coasting thus along towards Greene-Harbour, wee kill’d eight Deere more; and so at last having well loaden our Shallop with Venison, wee still kept on our course towards Green-Harbour: where arriving upon the seventeenth day, we found (to our great wonderment) that the ship was departed thence, together with our twenty men aforesaid. That which increased our admiration was, for that wee knew they had not victuals sufficient aboard, to serve them (by proportion) homewards bound: which made us againe to wonder what should be the reason of their so sudden departure.
Perceiving our selves thus frustrated of our expectation, and having now but bare three dayes (according to appointment) to the uttermost expiration of our limited time for our departure out of the Country; we thought it our best course to make all possible speed to get to Bell Sownd, unto our Captaine, fearing that a little delay might bring a great deale of danger. For the lightening therefore of our Shallop, that she might make the better way through the waters, wee heaved our Venison over-board, and cast it all into the Sea. Having thus forsaken Green-Harbour, with a longing desire to recover Bell Sownd (from thence distant some sixteene leagues to the Southward) that night wee got halfe way about the point of the Nesse, or point of land, called Low-Nesse: But the darknesse or mistie fogge increasing so fast upon us, that it was impossible for us to get further; even there betweene two rocks we coved from the seventeenth day at night, untill the eighteenth day at noone. At which time the weather being somewhat clearer (though very thicke still) wee left the Nesse behinde us, still desirous to recover Bell Sownd: but having never a Compasse to direct our course by, nor any of our company that was Pilot sufficient to know the land when he saw it, we were faine to grabble in the darke (as it were) like a blinde man for his way, and so over-shot Bell point at least tenne leagues to the Southward towards Home Sownd.
Some of us in the meane time knowing that it was impossible to bee so long a rowing and sayling of eight leagues (for wee did both row and sayle) made enquirie, How the harbour lay in? whereunto there was a ready answer made, That it lay East in. Taking the matter therefore into our better consideration, some of us judged, that it could not possibly be further to the Southward (our reason being, our observation of the lands rounding away and trenting towards the Eastward) and resolved thereupon to row no further on that Course, for the finding of Bell Sownd. And though wee were againe perswaded by William Fakely our Gunner, (a proper Sea-man, though no skilfull Mariner, who had been in the Country five or sixe times before, which none of our Sea-men had beene) that it was further to the Southwards: yet we, trusting better to our own reasons than unto his perswasions, againe returned towards the Northward: which was our best and directest Course indeed, for the finding of Bell Sownd. Steering of which Course, wee were now come within two miles of Bell Point; & the weather being faire and cleare, wee presently descryed the tops of the loftie mountaines. William Fakely thereupon looking about him, presently cries out unto us, That wee were all this while upon a wrong Course: upon hearing of which words, some of our companie (yea the most) were perswaded, to wend about the Boates head the second time, unto the Southwards: which one action was the maine and onely cause of our too late repentance, though for mine owne part (as it is well knowne) I never gave consent unto their counsell.
And thus upon the fatall twentieth day of August (which was the utmost day of our limited time for staying in the Country) wee againe returned the quite contrary way, namely to the Southward. Thus utterly uncertaine when and where to finde the Sownd; a thousand sadde imaginations overtooke our perplexed minds, all of us assuredly knowing, that a million of miseries would of necessitie ensue, if wee found not the ships, whereby to save our passage. In this distracted time of our thoughts, wee were now againe the second time runne as farre to the Southward as at the first: and finding by all reason thereupon, how that there was no likelihood at all of finding any such place further to the Southward, we wended the Shallop the second time unto the Northward. William Fakely hereupon, being unwilling to condescend unto our agreement, still perswaded us, that That could not possibly bee our Course: but we not trusting any longer unto his unskilfull perswasions, (though all in him was out of good will, and strong conceit of his being in the rights) bent our Course to the Northward; and hee not consenting to steere any
longer, I tooke the Oare out of his hand to steere the Boate withall. The weather all this while continued faire and cleare, and it pleased God at the very instant time, to send the winde Easterly: which advantage wee thankfully apprehending, presently set sayle. The winde increased fresh and large, and our Shallop swiftly running, we arrived the one and twentieth day at Bell point, where wee found the winde right out of the Sownd at East Northeast so fiercely blowing, that we could not possibly row to Windwards; but being forced to take in our sayle, we were faine to betake ourselves unto our Oares, by helpe of which wee recovered some two miles within the shoare, where we were constrained for that time to Cove, or else to drive to Lee-wards.
Thus finding this to be the very place we had all this while sought for, (he now also agreeing thereunto) we forthwith sought out and found an harbor for our Shallop: and having brought her thereinto, two of our men were presently dispatched over land unto the Tent at Bell Sownd, to see if the Ships were still there; of which, by reason of the times being expired, and the opportunitie of the present faire winde, wee were much afraid. The Tent being distant ten miles at the least from our Shallop, our men at their comming thither finding the ships to be departed out of the Roade, and not being certaine, whether or not they might be at Bottle Cove, (three leagues distant on the other side of the Sownd) riding there under the Loome of the land; againe returne unto us with this sadde newes. The storme of winde hitherto continuing, about mid-night fell starke calme: whereupon we, unwilling to lose our first opportunity, departed towards Bottle Cove; betwixt hope and feare of finding the ships there: whither comming the two & twentieth, and finding the ships departed, we, having neither Pilot, Plat, nor Compasse for our directors to the Eastward, found our selves (God he knoweth) to have little hope of any delivery out of that apparent danger. Our feares increased upon us, even whilst we consulted whether it were safest for us either to goe or stay. If goe, then thought wee upon the dangers in sayling, by reason of the much yce in the way; as also of the difficultie in finding the place, when wee should come thereabouts. If we resolved stille to remaine at Bell Sownd, then wee thought that no other thing could be looked for, but a miserable and a pining death, seeing there appeared no possibility of inhabiting there, or to endure so long, so darksome, and so bitter a winter.