Note 95 — INTRODUCTION TO THE FIRST EDITION.

Among the earliest and most eminent Dutch merchants trading to the White Sea, was Balthazar Moucheron, of the town of Middelburg, in Zeelandt. He it was, who, in the year 1593, in conjunction with Jacob Valck, treasurer of the same town, and Dr. Francis Maelson, of Enkhuysen, syndic of West Friesland, conceived the project of fitting out two fly-boats (vlyboots), each of between fifty and sixty lasts, or about one hundred tons, burthen, armed and provisioned for eight months, being one from each of those towns, to attempt a voyage to China and India by the way of the Northern Ocean. In this enterprise they were assisted by the courts of admiralty of those two provinces, having first obtained the necessary permission from the higher authorities.95