Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 June 1879 — THE NORDENSKJOLD EXPEDITION. [ARTICLE]

THE NORDENSKJOLD EXPEDITION.

Through the Arctic to India—A Great Geographical Problem Solved. One of the greatest geographical problems of the last four centuries, says the Chicago Journal, has at length been solved. Even before Columbus set out to reach India by sailing westward, the thought of discovering a passage around Europe and Asia, by sailing to the north and east, had inspired more than one navigator to make attempts in this direction. While jubilant Americans were celebrating the Fourth of July, 1878, Prof. Nordenskjold anchor at Gothenburg, and set forth to reach Behring straits, and finally India, by sailing through the Arctic. The dispatch from Yatutsk, received from St. Petersburg last week, assures us that the Vega, with the expedition all in good health, had then arrived in Behring straits, and that after a brief stay Prof. Nordenskjold would sail for Japan, China and India, and return to Europe via the Suez canal. Some of the most thrilling narratives in the history of maritime adventure record the struggles of Prof. Nordenskjold’s predecessors in attempts to find this passage. Many of them persisted in their daring endeavors. There is evidence that as early as 890 of our era, a bold Norway navigator named Och ter sailed around the North cape of Europe and eastward as far as the mouth of the River Kola. The last great expedition planned by Sebastian Cabot, after he had skirted North and South America in two vain attempts to find a passage to the East Indies, was one directed to the same object by circumnavigating Europe and Asia. He was too old to accompany the expedition, but it set forth, and ended in disaster.

Sir Hugh Willoughby and Richard Chancellor, under the auspices of the Muscovy Company, of London, in 1853, sailed no further than Nova Zembla. Willoughby's vessel was lost with all on board. Chancellor and his vessel barely escaped back to Europe. In 1856 the same company dispatched Stephen Burroughs, who pushed eastward to the .Kara sea, lying east of Nova Zembla. Three vessels were sent out by the Dutch in 1594, one of which crossed the Kara sea to the mouth of the great Siberian river Obi. In the letter part of the sixteenth century Russian navigators explored the northern coast of Russia in Europe and Asia, sailing from Archangel to the Obi river, and thence eastward to the river Yenesei. It was not until 1630 that a party reached the mouth of the Lena, and then not by sea, but by sledges overland. By similar means the river Kolima was reached in 1644. Then the spirit of discovery slumbered until it revived under Peter the Great. Under this energetic sovereign the celebrated Dane, Vitas Behring, entered the Russian service. He made several Arctic voyages with but trifling results, but in 1728 he began an overland survey of the northeast coast of Siberia, in which he penetrated to the eastern extremity of Asia, East cape, and looked eastward over the broad straits that now bear his name. Through such means as these the general outline of the Arctic shores of Europe and Asia became tolerably well known to geographers before Nordenskjold set out, but no voyager had ever sailed the length of this entire coast, and many disbelieved that such a feat was possible, until now the triumph of this renowned scientist and navigator puts an end to doubt and ranks him with the-immortal Columbus and Vasco de Gama.

In June, 1875, Prof. Nordenskjold, under the aus ices of that enterprising merchant, Oscar Dickson, of Gothenburg, made an exploring and trading voyage to the mouth of the Yenesei. Such were the results of this able navigator's previous experience and study of the seasons and currents of these seas, that he astonished all Europe by making the voyage from North cape to Nova Zembla in six days; ' halted to make three exploiations of the interior of that island; crossed the dreadful Sea of Kara with comparative ease, and anchored in the mouth of the Yenesei Aug. 15. On the return his vessel made the voyage from that dit t int, hyperborean river tojHammerfest, Norway, in only ten days. Again, in 1876, leaving Tromsoe on the 25th of July, he reached Nova Zembla in less than five days, and, after some delay in the Karasea, anchored at the mouth of the Yenesei on the anniversary of the day he had reached there in the year before; this time only twenty days from Tromsoe. He disposed of his cargo at a fair profit, and, after eighteen days in harbor, returned to Hammerfest within seven weeks of his setting forth. Emboldened by success, he applied to King Oscar, of Sweden and Norway, himself one of the greatest geographers of the age, for assistance to make a more extended voyage. The King and Mr. Alexander Sibiriakoff contributed £B,OOO, to which his old patron, Mr. Dickson, added £12,000, and, on July 4, 1878, the gallant explorer turned his prow into the fierce face of the Arctic, to win, if possible, for this nineteenth century the honor sought in vain by the centuries gone by. This time he was provided with a steam whaling vessel, the Vega, and accompanied by a large staff of navy and scientific officers detached from the service of various European countries, all eager to have a share in the discoveries of this remarkable Captain. They left Tromsoe July 25; reached the Yenesei Aug. 6; rested there three days, then boldly ventured around the dreaded North cape of Asia, never rounded by sailing craft before, and came to anchor in the mouth of the far-off Lena on Aug. 27. The good news filled the heart of every geographer in all lands with rejoicings, and congratulations to King Oscar and Mr. Dickson poured in from every court and scientific academy in Europe and America. After Sept. 25 nothing was heard from the Vega, until in January word came from Yakutsk that she was caught in th.e ice only forty miles east of East cape. Since then all has been anxious silence, which had begun to yield to sad forebodings of disaster. Mr. Bennett, of the New York Herald, volunteered to send his famous vessel, the Jeannette, in search of Nordenskjold, and she was about to start from San Francisco when the good tidings came which relieves the world of all anxiety. If this age is not wonder-hardened, Prof. Nordenskjold will be welcomed

back to Europe with such marks of honor as have been accorded to no other discoverer of this era, not even the heroic Stanley.