--shows even,
if it is correct, that he went far into the bay at the mouth of the Kara
river. Here Pet fell in with his comrade Jackman, from whom he had
parted on the coast of Kola, and of whose voyage during the interval we
know nothing. When the vessels met they were both damaged by ice. As,
in addition, the sea to the north and east was barred by compact masses
of ice, the captains, after deliberating with the inferior officers,
determined to return. They had, also, during the return voyage, to
contend with formidable ice obstacles, until, on the 25/15th August, in
Lat. 69 deg. 49' north, near the southeastern extremity of Vaygats they met
with open water. They sailed along the east coast of Vaygats through the
Kara Port, which was passed on the 27/17th August. Hence the course was
shaped for Kolgujev Island, on whose sandbanks both vessels ran aground,
but were soon got off again without loss. The latitude of the sandbanks
was correctly fixed at 68 deg. 48'.

On the 1st Sept./22nd Aug. _William_ was again lost sight of.[124]
On the 8th Sept./29th Aug. the _George_ anchored in Tana Fiord, on
which there was a town named Hungon.[125] Two days afterwards the
_George_ doubled the North Cape, and on the 5th Nov./26th Oct. again
anchored at Ratcliffe.

Pet and Jackman were the first north-east explorers who ventured
themselves in earnest amongst the drift-ice. In navigating among ice
they showed good judgment and readiness of resource, and in the
history of navigation the honour falls to them of having commanded
the first vessels from Western Europe that forced their way into the
Kara Sea. It is therefore without justification that BARROW says of
them that they were but indifferent navigators.[126]

With Pet and Jackman's voyage the English North-east Passage expeditions
were broken off for a long time. But the problem was, instead, taken up
with great zeal in Holland. Through the fortunate issue of the war of
freedom with Spain, and the incitement to enterprise which civil
freedom always brings along with it, Holland, already a great industrial
and commercial state, had begun, towards the close of the sixteenth
century, to develop into a maritime power of the first rank. But
navigation to India and China was then rendered impossible for the
Dutch, as for the English, by the supremacy of Spain and Portugal at
sea, and through the endeavours of these countries to retain the sole
right to the commercial routes they had