butary both to the King of Sweden and the Prince of Russia, and lies between the dominions of both of these princes; hence each claims it as his own. Its boundaries extend as far as the Frozen Ocean. As, however, many various accounts have been given of the Frozen Ocean by different writers, I have thought it not inappropriate to subjoin a brief description of the navigation of that sea.
The Navigation of the Frozen Ocean.
At the time that I was at the court of the Grand Duke of Muscovy, as the ambassador of the Most Serene Prince my master, there happened to be there Gregory Istoma, the interpreter of that prince, an industrious man, who had learned the Latin language at the court of John, King of Denmark; and as he had been sent by his prince in the year 1496 to the King of Denmark, in company with one Master David (a Scotchman by birth, and at that time the King of Denmark's ambassador, with whom also I became acquainted in my first embassy), he gave me a short account of his journey; and as from the great difficulties of the road, this journey seemed to be an extremely laborious one, I have conceived the wish briefly to describe it just as I received it from him. In the first place, he said that being dispatched by his prince, in company with the aforesaid ambassador David, he had reached Great Novogorod; but as at that time the kingdom of Sweden had revolted from the King of Denmark, and the Grand Prince of Muscovy was on that account at issue with the Swedes, so that the travellers could not follow the ordinary road in consequence of the disorders occasioned by the war, they were obliged to take a route which, though safer, was much longer. The first portion of it, which was difficult enough, was from Novo-
