It is now about three centuries since Richard Chancellor, pilot-major ofthe fleet which, under the command of Sir Hugh Willoughby, and by theadvice of Sebastian Cabot, set out to discover a north-east passage toChina, carried his ship, the Edward Bonaventura, into Archangel. The restof the fleet put into a haven on the coast of Lapland, where all theircrews, with the gallant commander, perished miserably of cold and hunger.Chancellor, accompanied by Master George Killingworthe, found his way toMoscow, where he was courteously entertained by the Tsar Iván IV.,surnamed the Terrible. On his return to England in 1554, he delivered afriendly letter from the Tsar to King Edward VI., and announced to thepeople of England "the discovery of Muscovy." The English adventurerswhere mightily astonished by the state and splendour of the Russian court,and gave a curious account of their intercourse with the tyrant Iván, whotreated them with great familiarity and kindness, though he was perhapsthe most atrocious monster, not excepting the worst of the Roman emperors,that ever disgraced a throne. The Tsar "called them to his table toreceive each a cup from his hand to drinke, and took into his hand MasterGeorge Killingworthe's beard, which reached over the table, and pleasantlydelivered it to the metropolitan, who seeming to bless it, said in Russ,'This is God's gift;' as indeed at that time it was not only thicke, broad,and yellow coulered, but in length five foot and two inches of a size."
Chancellor returned the following year to Moscow, and arranged with theTsar the commercial privileges and immunities of a new company ofmerchant-adventurers who desired to trade with Muscovy; but in 1556, whileon his way home, accompanied by Osep Neped, the first Russian ambassadorto the court of England, their ship was wrecked on our own coast, atPitsligo bay, where Chancellor was drowned, with most of the crew; butOsep Neped, who