Note 88 — INTRODUCTION TO THE FIRST EDITION.

Nearly a century later, Witsen, in his oft-cited work,88 writes as follows:—“Het zijn veele jaren geleden, en lange voor Willem Barents-zoons reis, dat eenen Olivier Bunel, met een scheepje van Enkhuizen uitgevaren, deze rivier [Petsora] heeft bezocht, daer hy veel pelterye, Rusch glas, en bergkristal vergaderd hadde; doch is aldaer komen te blyven.” Witsen does not cite any authority for this statement; but it bears internal evidence of having been taken from Gerard, whose work we know he had before him. That both he and Purchas should have written the name “Bunel”, and not “Brunel”, is perfectly natural, and adds nothing to the weight of evidence in favour of the former spelling.