during the following spring, after making some efforts to find habitations of the natives and to seek their aid. Chancellor was more fortunate. He succeeded in reaching the Russian settlement of Kholmogori on the White Sea, proceeded to Moscow, and returned safely to England in the autumn of 1554. Commercial relations were thus commenced with this distant and previously unknown country, which were kept open by vessels periodically dispatched to the White Sea by the Muscovy Company, the title by which it was henceforth known. For in February, 1555, it was granted a charter of incorporation by Philip and Mary, for the discovery of unknown lands.
In June, 1555, the company sent out two ships, the Edward Bonaventure and Philip and Mary, commanded by Richard Chancellor and John Howlet, with George Killingworth on board as the company's agent. The former ship proceeded to the White Sea, probably hearing of the sad fate of Sir Hugh Willoughby and his people at Vardö. On her return, the Edward Bonaventure, then in command of John Buckland, visited Arzina and took on board the body of Willoughby, and the papers and merchandise remaining in his ships. The Edward Bonaventure and Philip and Mary returned to the Thames in November. Mr. Harrisse has pointed out that Milton ('Brief History of Muscovia') was mistaken in supposing that the vessel with Willoughby's body on board was lost at sea. The same two ships were sent to the White Sea again, in 1556, and a third vessel was added, the Searchthrift, under Stephen Borough, with his brother William and a crew of eight men.
Stephen Borough appears to have been in chief command; and he left Gravesend on the 25th of April, 1556. Parting company with the two other ships off the entrance to the White Sea, the Searchthrift continued the explorations eastward, and Borough reached the mouth of the Pechora. On August 1st, 1556, he landed on the south-west coast of Novaya Zemlya, and explored the strait between that coast and Waigatsch island. He then proceeded to the White Sea, and wintered at Kholmogori, returning home in 1557.
Meanwhile, Chancellor had again been to Moscow, and returning with a Russian ambassador, embarked at Kholmogori on board the Edward Bonaventure in July, 1556. It was not until November that she arrived off Pitsligo, near Aberdeen, where she was driven
